Soft-Drink Makers Fighting Mexican Tax
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo are lobbying against a Mexican plan to put a 20% tax on soft drinks, arguing it will be as harmful to the poor as raising the price of rice, beans and tortillas.
In a full-page advertisement in the newspaper El Financiero, the nation’s soft-drink producers, hoping to protect a $5-billion-a-year market, said 60% of their sales are to Mexicans earning less than $10 a day.
Mexico consumes more soft drinks than any country other than the U.S.--150 liters a person each year. Lawmakers are looking at bringing back a soft-drink tax dropped a decade ago to help lift revenue by about $1 billion.
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