BLACK MARKETERS

Cigarette makers have voiced alarm that a jump in cigarette taxes proposed
in a major tobacco bill in Congress would cause black marketing of cheap
smokes here. Authorities in Europe and Canada aasert that U.S. tobacco
interests should know all about that. They accuse them of doing it.

In Europe, authorities accuse American cigarette makers of cut-rate sales to
black marketers who evade taxes. In Canada, authorities are convinced that
smuggled U.S. cigarettes being sold there at a nifty profit in the states.

U.S. tobacco interests make it sound like this is all underworld stuff. It
may be, but feeding the cigarette underworld are the overlords of
over-the-counter sales.

The issue of cigarette taxes should rise or fall on its own merits, not on
the basis of a phony appeal about illegal sales. If Big Tobacco wants to
find black marketers, say the folks in Europe and Canada, it should look in
the mirror.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett