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Tag: Cigar Association of America

  • Court Tosses Premium Cigar Regulations

    Court Tosses Premium Cigar Regulations

    Photo: Olena

    The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has vacated the Food and Drug Administration’s deeming regulations for premium cigars, reports Halfwheel.

    As a result, the deeming regulations introduced by the agency in 2016 do not apply to cigars that meets all of the following criteria:

    • It is wrapped in whole tobacco leaf
    • It contains 100 percent leaf tobacco binder
    • It contains at least 50 percent long filler tobacco
    • It is handmade or hand rolled
    • It has no filter, nontobacco tip or nontobacco mouthpiece
    • It does not have a characterizing flavor other than tobacco
    • It contains only tobacco, water and vegetable gum with no other ingredients or additives
    • It weighs less than 6 pounds per 1,000 units.

    The lawsuit was filed by the Cigar Association of America, the Cigar Rights of America (CRA) and the Premium Cigar Association.

    The case focused in part on the rulemaking process, which requires the FDA to inform the public about upcoming regulation and solicit feedback on those proposed rules.

    Contrary to the FDA’s assertion when it announced its finalized rules in 2016, the agency received feedback, according to Judge Amit P. Mehta. Specifically, the CRA in a comment to the proposed rules cited a finding from an FDA-funded study indicating that cigar smokers do not have higher “all-cause” mortality rates than nonsmokers.

    According to Halfwheel, the cigar industry is likely to ask the FDA to reimburse the user fees it has paid the agency, which the publication estimates at about $100 million per year for both premium and non-premium cigars.

    The FDA still has the option to deem premium cigars as regulated tobacco products, but it must complete the process that it failed to complete properly from 2014 to 2016.  

  • Flavor Ban Will Create Unregulated Markets

    Flavor Ban Will Create Unregulated Markets

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The Cigar Association of America (CAA) has published a new analysis showing the significant negative impacts the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed ban on flavored cigars would have on public health and law enforcement activities.

    “Making flavored cigars illegal will not eliminate the demand for flavored cigars; it will only criminalize their sale and create illicit markets,” said CAA President David M. Ozgo in a statement. “The nation has seen this with marijuana and our failed experiment in alcohol prohibition in the 1920s.”

    Earlier this month, the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee approved language in the FDA’s 2024 appropriation that would effectively block the agency from enforcing the proposed ban, Ozgo said. “We applaud the appropriators for recognizing how damaging FDA’s proposed ban on flavored cigars would be.”

    According to the CAA, the existing regulatory system for flavored cigars was designed to ensure that legal tobacco products are manufactured to meet established standards, undergo quality control measures, and prevent inclusion of unregulated ingredients that could pose health hazards to consumers.

    Criminals, however, do not care about regulatory standards or quality control, Ozgo noted. The analysis shows how illicit tobacco products sold through criminal enterprises often contain dangerous contaminants such as asbestos and rat droppings.

    “Further, FDA claims it will only enforce the flavored cigar ban against manufacturers and retailers, not against individuals,” the CAA wrote in a press note. “However, the report notes that nearly all states have cigar excise taxes, and all 50 states have laws that treat unlicensed tobacco sales as a serious crime.”

    In written comments submitted to FDA, many law enforcement groups opposed the ban, including the National Association of Police Organizations, Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association Foundation, National Narcotics Officers Association Coalition, National Troopers Coalition and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

    The groups pointed out they don’t enforce FDA law, but they do enforce state laws requiring that excise taxes be paid on cigars. Shifting resources to police a new crime—sale of untaxed flavored cigars—will mean reduced efforts to combat other criminal activity, according to the law enforcement groups.

    The analysis also raises concerns that law enforcement efforts would fall disproportionately on minority populations. The National Black Chamber of Commerce stated in its FDA comments: “…enforcement of local laws against these transactions (flavored cigars) will certainly bring African Americans, already the subject of over policing, into further confrontations with law enforcement personnel.”

    The Congress of Racial Equality also opposed the ban in its public comments, noting that the deaths of Eric Garner and Michael Brown at the hands of police involved tobacco enforcement. Michael Brown’s initial infraction was related to cigars and Garner’s to the sale of untaxed tobacco.

  • Industry Group Opposes Flavored Cigar Ban

    Industry Group Opposes Flavored Cigar Ban

    Photo: Andrii

    The Cigar Association of America (CAA) has filed comments opposing the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) proposed flavored cigar ban, saying FDA’s own data show that underage usage of flavored cigars—the main rationale for the proposal—is at historic lows, after years of continued decline.

    “This clearly shows that FDA is proposing a solution in search of a problem. The underage usage of flavored cigars is minuscule,” said CAA President David M. Ozgo in a statement. “It is a blatant example of targeting an industry that is clearly marketing its products to legal age adults.”

    The comments note that one of the key purposes of the Tobacco Control Act—the law giving FDA authority to regulate tobacco—is to continue to permit the sale of tobacco products to adults, in conjunction with measures to ensure tobacco products are not sold or accessible to underage purchasers. The current historically low youth usage rates show the success of existing measures.

    According to the CAA, government evidence shows that youth usage of cigars is so low as to be almost immeasurable. When the FDA first sought to exercise regulatory authority over certain tobacco products in 1996, the only survey that tracked youth usage of cigars in 1997, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), showed last 30-day youth usage at 5 percent in 1997. In 2020 NSDUH tracked last 30-day youth usage of cigars at 0.8 percent.

    The CAA comments highlight the most recent data from the government’s Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Survey (PATH) showing that youth last 30-day usage of cigars overall was down to 0.75 percent and that youth usage of flavored cigars is around just 0.29 percent.

    “In short, youth usage of flavored cigars continues to decline to almost unmeasurable levels,” Ozgo stated in the filed comment. “FDA asserts that flavored cigars attract youth. If that were true, we would expect flavored cigars to account for a majority of youth cigar use,” the comment added.

    “But the government data clearly show that youth usage of flavored cigars is tiny and declining further,” Ozgo noted.

    The comments also state there is no scientific basis for the proposed ban, but there would be devastating economic consequences. Many small businesses, often minority owned, would be negatively impacted as well as an assortment of cigar manufacturers, suppliers and producing countries such as the Dominican Republic and Honduras.

    Additionally, the CAA comments go on to demonstrate how the FDA does not show any differentiated health effects posed by flavored cigars and that banning flavored cigars would only lead to the development of an unregulated illegal market for flavored cigars. Illegally produced and sold product can often have dangerous additives.

  • U.S. Premium Cigar Imports Up

    U.S. Premium Cigar Imports Up

    Photo: Media Ingenious Corp

    The United States imported 21.4 million premium cigars in 2022, up 3.8 percent from the previous year, reports Halfwheel, citing the Cigar Association of America (CAA).

    Nicaragua supplied 14.73 million premium cigars while Honduras delivered 3.21 million, both showing increases from 2021.

    Imports from the Dominican Republic, on the other hand, decreased by more than 40 percent.

    The CAA calculates its report numbers based on import numbers from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Customs Services and information reported by cigar companies. Numbers are not exact due to reporting differences, according to the association. The CAA estimates how many “large cigars” were actually “premium cigars.”

  • U.S.: Record Premium Cigars Imports

    U.S.: Record Premium Cigars Imports

    Photo: laboko

    The United States imported a record-setting 456.3 million premium cigars in 2021, according to the Cigar Association of America (CAA).

    The CAA estimates that 364.4 million premium cigars were imported in 2020, showing a 25.2 percent increase in 2021.

    December, however, showed a 23.7 percent drop in imports, marking the only month that did not exceed 2020 figures. The fourth quarter as a whole represented a 6.8 percent decrease compared to 2020.

    According to Halfwheel, the CAA calculates its numbers based on the import numbers provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Customs Services and information from cigar companies. The trade group’s numbers are not exact because of reporting differences; it estimates how many “large cigars” were actually “premium cigars.” There are some machine-made cigars that meet the U.S. definition of a “large cigar,” though those cigars would not be considered premium cigars by most people.