P.M. BRIEFING : Chinese Study Tobacco Controls
BEIJING — China’s Parliament today discussed a draft law that aims both to ensure state revenues from tobacco sales and to safeguard the health of smokers.
The draft law bans cigarette sales to minors, the official New China News Agency said.
Tobacco imports would be regulated and an import licensing system introduced, Jiang Ming, director of the state tobacco monopoly, said.
“The flow of large amounts of tobacco products into China has disturbed the market and caused the flow of revenue from China,” Jiang said.
The law revealed the government’s ambivalent attitude toward the effects of tobacco on the health of the people of China, the biggest cigarette market on Earth.
The state earned $5.1 billion in revenues from tobacco taxes and sales last year, the agency said, and it would be unrealistic to ban smoking in the country.
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