Orrin Hatch: “I have one final concern about the chart displayed by our colleague from Massachusetts on tobacco use and price. That…”

“I have one final concern about the chart displayed by our colleague from Massachusetts on tobacco use and price. That chart ended in 1991. It did not include any data since then. I want to show you this chart again. This chart shows the growth of Canadian exports to the United States. You will notice up until 1991 the growth was minimal, hardly at all. And then it moved suddenly up. The Judiciary Committee heard testimony that most of these cigarettes were smuggled back into Canada. Now, since smugglers do not seek IDs, I suspect youth were able to easily obtain bootleg cigarettes at an affordable price. Maybe this is why we have not seen the smoking prevalence rates and prices beyond 1991; perhaps that is why the chart of the Senator from Massachusetts ended there. But this is when they hiked up the excise tax in Canada. Look how the imports from Canada to the United States went up. Of course, they continued to just skyrocket because they were sending their exports to the United States and then the contraband was coming back. Only when they had to voluntarily reduce their prices did their exports to the United States go down.”