Friday, February 16, 2007
Tortillas and soft drinks
On January 18, the government of Mexico announced an agreement to fix tortilla prices. This move, according to my sources, shows President Felipe Calderon Hinojosa is not afraid to take action. In 2006, tortilla prices rose by 14% compared to inflation of 4.05%.
Also, the Mexican government is not afraid to take its citizens to task for drinking too many sugary soft drinks. They are getting hit with a 5% tax. The purpose of this tax is 2 fold--to generate revenue from the booming consumption of soft drinks (Mexico is second only to the US in per capita consumption of carbonated drinks) and to discourage drinking of them because of health problems (I hope we all know how silly this left hand/right hand trick looks). I'm assuming the government is also subsidizing the Mexican sugar industry.
All this leads me to a suggestion. If the Mexican government would just call its people home with good jobs, infrastructure, health care and education, they could stop all that soft drink consumption by Mexicans going on north of the border, and get tortilla prices under control by keeping their citizens in Mexico where they have more access to them.
Source: Latin American Economy & Business, January 2007.
Also, the Mexican government is not afraid to take its citizens to task for drinking too many sugary soft drinks. They are getting hit with a 5% tax. The purpose of this tax is 2 fold--to generate revenue from the booming consumption of soft drinks (Mexico is second only to the US in per capita consumption of carbonated drinks) and to discourage drinking of them because of health problems (I hope we all know how silly this left hand/right hand trick looks). I'm assuming the government is also subsidizing the Mexican sugar industry.
All this leads me to a suggestion. If the Mexican government would just call its people home with good jobs, infrastructure, health care and education, they could stop all that soft drink consumption by Mexicans going on north of the border, and get tortilla prices under control by keeping their citizens in Mexico where they have more access to them.
Source: Latin American Economy & Business, January 2007.
# posted by Norma : 2/16/2007 10:54:00 AM
