Mr. Speaker, in its action plan against cigarette smuggling, the government announces that it will introduce an $8 export tax on each carton. However, the last export tax on cigarettes was a total fiasco and had to be withdrawn in April 1992, after being applied for only two months.
Has the Prime Minister obtained assurances from tobacco manufacturers to the effect that they will not move their operations and start exporting jobs to Puerto Rico and the United States to avoid the new tax, as they did in 1992?