E-cigarettes in South America

Paraguay: Opposition senator Pedro Santa Cruz has written to president Mario Abdo Benítez urging him to increase the tax on e-liquids from 20% to 22% of the wholesale price, with proceeds to go to the National Cancer Institute (Incan).

Paraguay: Health minister Julio Borba said yesterday that the ministry would tighten its control over sales of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, due to their increasing use by young people, press reports. Borba said vaping was “an entry gate to smoking” and that he will work with the National Health Surveillance Authority (Dinavisa) to find effective control mechanisms.

Chile: The Chamber of Deputies Health Committee yesterday heard the government’s comments on Bill 12626-11, which, together with Bill 12632-11, seeks to equate all vaping products, regardless of their nicotine content, with tobacco products. The Health Committee agreed in March to drop all provisions relating to vaping products, but they have been reintroduced. The committee has now set a new deadline of 17th November to end the discussion and decide on the bill, which also introduces certain provisions on e-cigarette devices and their components.

Americas: The Pan American Health Organization, the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO), has published a paper on “Taxation of novel and emerging nicotine and tobacco products (HTPs, ENDS, and ENNDS) globally and in Latin America”, analysing “the evolution and market structure” of heated tobacco and e-cigarettes, with and without nicotine, and proposes “possible elements of a good tax policy approach for countries to consider”. The paper makes extensive use of ECigIntelligence data.

Colombia: President Gustavo Petro has decided not to tax e-cigarettes, press reports. Medical societies had been urging the government to include a tax on e-liquids in his tax reform plans and some members of the Chamber of Representatives have already criticised the decision not to do so.