Florida Sen. Marco Rubio recently toured a cigar factory to highlight concerns about new regulations from the Food and Drug Administration regarding cigars.
The new rules were intended to keep harmful tobacco products out of the hands of children. First, children aren't out buying cigars, especially not premium cigars; they're buying cigarettes and e-cigarettes. Second, cigars don't have the same negative health effects as cigarettes because one doesn't inhale or become addicted, and the FDA itself has noted that smoking two cigars a day has only minimal health risks. "This is a law that was passed to keep cigarettes and harmful tobacco products out of the hands of young people and children, and I don't think any of us disagree with that," Rubio said after touring the factory. "Anybody who knows about the premium cigar industry knows it's not an industry that targets or is consumed by young Americans." But, the children. So the FDA has imposed new regulations that will make it more difficult for cigar makers to innovate, and will impose new costs on companies that will be passed on to consumers. For example, cigars introduced after 2007 will be required to go under a lengthy review process that could take years. This rule applies retroactively, even though the law creating these new regulations was passed in 2009 and is going into effect now. Many companies, such as the J.C. Newman Cigar Co. that Rubio visited, fear they could go out of business because of the new rules. "They can't afford to do it," Rubio said. "The end result and the worst-case scenario is about half the people working here in Tampa will lose their jobs at some point, maybe more, because all they're going to be able to sell is the things they were making before 2007." Rubio also said that President Obama's recent executive order that lifted restrictions on Cuba, allowing Americans to bring cigars back from the communist country, would hurt American businesses. Cuban cigars would not have to go through the FDA's onerous new rules since they aren't sold in America. The new rules would be especially difficult for hand-rolled, premium cigars, which make up a small fraction of cigars sold in the U.S. If larger companies, such as Philip Morris, buy up the smaller premium cigar companies, the industry could collapse along with the quality of cigars. Rubio and fellow Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, have put forth a bill to exempt large and premium cigars from the FDA's new regulations. They hope to attach the bill to larger legislation.
0 Comments
|
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |