For the first time in ten years, American cigarettes were officially on sale in Paris last week. After about a year of negotiations, SEITA, the French government tobacco monopoly, made an agreement to import Camels (R. J. Reynolds) and Old Golds (P. Lorillard), pegged the price at 150 francs a pack, or about 42ยข.
SEITA not only wanted to dry up the black market, but hoped to boost its sales of tobacco paper in the U.S., where it once supplied 90% of the market. During World War II, U.S. companies started making their own paper, and SEITA has been unable...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
