Joossens L, Raw M
Department of Public Health and Epidemiology, Kings College School of Medicine and Dentistry, London.
BMJ. 1995 May 27;310(6991):1393-7. doi: 10.1136/bmj.310.6991.1393.
Governments have recently become concerned about cross border shopping and smuggling because it can decrease tax revenue. The tobacco industry predicted that, with the removal of border controls in the European Union, price differences between neighbouring countries would lead to a diversion of tobacco trade, legally and illegally, to countries with cheaper cigarettes. According to them this diversion would be through increased cross border shopping for personal consumption or through increased smuggling of cheap cigarettes from countries with low tax to countries with high tax, where cigarettes are more expensive. These arguments have been used to urge governments not to increase tax on tobacco products. The evidence suggests, however, that cross border shopping is not yet a problem in Europe and that smuggling is not of cheap cigarettes to expensive countries. Instead, more expensive "international" brands are smuggled into northern Europe and sold illegally on the streets of the cheaper countries of southern Europe.
政府近来开始关注跨境购物和走私问题，因为这会减少税收。烟草行业预测，随着欧盟边境管控的取消，邻国之间的价格差异将导致烟草贸易出现分流，合法和非法的烟草贸易都会流向香烟价格更低的国家。据他们称，这种分流将通过增加跨境购物用于个人消费，或者通过增加将低价香烟从低税国家走私到香烟价格更高的高税国家来实现。这些论点被用来敦促政府不要提高烟草产品的税收。然而，有证据表明，跨境购物在欧洲尚未成为一个问题，而且也不存在将低价香烟走私到高价国家的情况。相反，价格更高的“国际”品牌被走私到北欧，并在南欧较便宜国家的街头非法销售。
