PRAGUE--New Czech excise tax stamps and a blanket ban on the
domestic sale and export of hard alcohol won't guarantee greater
public safety, a trade group said Friday.
Public safety from tainted alcohol can be achieved only by
allowing sales of alcohol with verifiable origin while banning
sales of goods lacking clear provenance, officials from the Czech
Union of Distillers and Spirits' Importers, or UVDL, said.
On Thursday the Czech government banned with immediate effect
all exports of liquors and spirits with alcohol content of more
than 20% and said new tax stamps must be applied to all new and old
bottles of alcohol.
The steps follow the deaths of 23 people who were poisoned by
bootleg alcohol contaminated with methanol which has found its way
into retail distribution networks.
That followed a nationwide ban of hard-alcohol sales put in
place last Friday.
"The new stamps don't guarantee safety, they are falsifiable,"
said Tomas Otta, General Director at Global Spirits, an importer of
drinks from Diageo PLC (DGE.LN).
New excise stamps are "an absurd measure that at the given
moment don't help, the new stamps only calm the public but don't
increase safety," said Jiri Stetina, general director of Remy
Cointreau S.A. (RCO.FR) in the Czech Republic.
UVDL Vice President Vladimir Darebnik said the government should
permanently halt the sale of alcohol that lacks clear and
verifiable origin, batch numbers and source of production, laws
that are already in place in the Czech Republic and throughout the
European Union.
Mr. Darebnik said hard alcohol imported by UVDL members as well
as domestic production from member companies already meets
international norms and should be released for sale
immediately.
UVDL officials said financial compensation wasn't an issue at
the moment, as the focus should be on safety, removing unverifiable
goods from the market and resuming sales of legitimate products,
but it will seek compensation for its members once critical issues
have been resolved in cooperation with the government.
Tainted alcohol also killed several people in Poland and
authorities have joined Slovakia in banning the import of Czech
alcohol. Russia said it may implement a ban while British
authorities issued a warning to travellers.
Write to Sean Carney at sean.carney@dowjones.com
Go to http://blogs.wsj.com/emergingeurope/ for the new Dow Jones
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