Every budget the Chancellor makes his predictable hike in the tax on cigarettes. This year it was no different. But there was one difference to last year. After he announced the rises, he made an interesting remark: "I intend to freeze duty on hand-rolling tobacco this year because it is proving to be by far the easiest product to smuggle."1 It may be that Kenneth Clarke has read this pamphlet. If he hasn't, he should. He might be persuaded to make further changes in the same direction.

This is a tract which announces its objective in its title and then proceeds, methodically, to demonstrate its hypothesis with a breadth and depth of evidence which, to this reader at least, makes it irrefutable. Along the way, Mrs Nicholson takes a few hefty swipes at other aspects of the hypocrisy which surrounds most state pronouncements on the subject of tobacco and similarly makes her case with convincing logic.

Smugglers' Charter makes its way from an initial look at the political and legal environment to examining two particular cases; Canada and the United Kingdom. Then the view widens to take in Europe and the rest of the world before finishing with a look at the consequences of smuggling and ending with an appeal to governments to scrutinise more honestly their approach to taxation on tobacco.

The Canadian experience gives Mrs Nicholson a fine example of how raising taxes increases smuggling. A vigorous campaign was launched against smoking including anti-smoking health education campaigns, a ban on tobacco advertising and higher taxes.

By 1993 taxation on cigarettes had increased by 400 per cent since 1984, making tobacco twice the price prevailing across the border in the U.S.A. [p.6]

Canadian cigarettes sold to US wholesalers were (and still are) immediately sold on to organised crime syndicates,including the Mafia and Triad gangs, who then smuggle them back across the Canadian border. [p.6]

So things got back to normal in Canada? Jobs saved and a criminalising tendency stopped? Mrs Nicholson sounds a warning note:

However, the belief that smuggling will cease altogether is premature.... [H]aving invested in the establishment of 'trading' networks and machinery it is unlikely that organised crime will withdraw either. Other means of recouping the costs and maintaining profits will be sought. [p.8]

The warnings sounded by the Canadian example may already be too late for us. Mrs Nicholson makes the point that smuggling draws the ordinary man in the street into crime - especially when high taxes make it more acceptable. "Kelvin" one of those who makes regular runs to the Continent for clients in this country, says "I'm just a businessman exploiting the tax differentials between the two countries. It's not my fault they do not make sense."2 [p.11]. Of course organised criminal gangs see the opportunities there too.

While focusing on her target concerns, Mrs Nicholson, gets in a few shots at some of the fake arguments deployed by the anti-freedom for smoking forces. How often have you heard the complaint that smokers are a drain on the National Health service? The facts suggest that smokers contribute to the general coffers far more than any special treatment they may need takes away. In 1993, for example, the cost to the tax-payer of treating smoking-related diseases was an estimated œ600 million, while the revenue from taxes on tobacco products was œ8« billion. She points out that the majority of smokers are working class, while the majority of campaigners against are middle class.

One of the interesting areas which Smugglers' Charter explores is the subject of health-control by the State. The ambivalent attitude of taxers to tobacco emerged again in Kenneth Clarke's Budget speech. He made it clear that one of his objectives in raising taxes was the health of the nation:

In my 1993 Budget I gave a commitment to raise duty on tobacco by at least 3 per cent a year in real terms in future Budgets. I thought then that that was the most fair and effective way of backing up health warnings on smoking. I remain convinced of that today.3

In Germany the view that the body was to serve the State led eventually to the elimination of those whose bodies were not considered to be up to the job. Readers will already be aware that in the United Kingdom the refusal to treat smokers is becoming common.

The pamphlet finishes with a call to states to address three issues before imposing high tobacco taxes: they should acknowledge the aims of taxation either as a raiser of revenue or a deterrent. They must prepare for an increase in smuggling. They should face the disrespect for the law that smuggling would cause.

Mrs Nicholson then looks at the wider issue.

The State has created this problem. People must be free to make their own decisions about how they live their own lives. This applies to whether they engage in dangerous sports, eat fatty foods, drive cars, smoke tobacco or drink alcohol. Legislation should seek to preserve these rights, not remove them. The use of taxation to punish or deprive of access to goods cannot, under any circumstances, be considered morally correct in any society, let alone one which prides itself on respect for the rights and freedoms of its citizens.

Michael Barry

Notes

1 Hansard, 28th November 1995, col. 1065.
 2 Quoted from The Mail on Sunday, 13th June 1993.
 3 Hansard, 28th November 1995, ibid.