Barack Obama President-elect of the U.S., signed the extension of the Program of Health Insurance for the State of the Children on February 4, when President George W. Bush has vetoed on two occasions the bill, which also raises the federal taxes on the cigars and other tobacco products.

The sector is not satisfied, with the increase in prices that will lead to a 10 percent of decline in sales of cigarettes and could put 117,000 people without work, said Thomas Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets.

Briant, whose group represents the operators of 2500 retailers, wholesalers of tobacco, the cigarette manufacturers and others, complained that it was “the biggest increase in taxes on a product in the history of the United States”.

“It is not going to be an immediate fall in sales due to the increase in taxes will be the April 1,” said Briant. “We hope that the fall in terms of the loss of jobs can take six to nine months from that date”.

Employees of shop and cashiers, truck drivers who deliver cigarettes, workers from the warehouse, sales (more…)