The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has undertaken a project on tobacco taxation in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region with the financial support of Bloomberg Philanthropies. The project sought to identify ways of improving the effectiveness of tobacco taxation and stimulating dialogue on tobacco taxation policy between Finance and Health Ministries in the LAC region. The project was carried out by the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration (CTPA) in tandem with the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs. Deliverables include a report on tobacco taxation in the LAC region, a regional workshop on tobacco taxation, and technical support on tobacco taxation for countries in LAC.
The report, one of the project outputs, was produced by the Tax Policy and Statistics Division of the CTPA. Within the CTPA, the work on the report was led by Bert Brys and authored by, in alphabetical order, Bert Brys, Jean-Baptiste Carpentier, Céline Colin, Caroline Maschka and Mariona Mas Montserrat.
The Health Division of the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs provided significant input. Their inputs were led by Michele Cecchini and written by Alexa Segal, with contributions from Aliénor Lerouge, Fabien Lenthy, Marion Devaux, and Sabine Vuik.
The authors would like to thank the delegates of Working Party No.2 on Tax Policy Analysis and Tax Statistics in its Inclusive Framework format for their inputs and feedback. The project team acknowledges the comments received from the Ministries of Finance of Brazil, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Uruguay, and the Revenue agency of Mexico.
The authors would also like to thank participants in the 2023 and 2024 meetings of the OECD Expert Group on the Economics of Public Health (EGEPH), where preliminary versions of the report were presented. A particular thank you goes to representatives from the Ministries of Health and other participating governmental organizations from Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States, as well as experts from Chile.
Colleagues Kurt Van Dender, Daniel Fichmann and Stéphane Buydens from the CTPA, and Stefano Scarpetta, Mark Pearson, Francesca Colombo, Chris James and Caroline Penn from the OECD’s Directorate for Employment, Labour, and Social Affairs provided useful contributions and comments. The authors are grateful to Hazel Healy and Antonia Vanzini from the CTPA for their assistance with editing and report communication and to Sahnur Soykan for organisational support. Meral Gedik prepared the report for publication.
The authors would also like to thank colleagues from the Pan American Health Organisation, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the University Adolfo Ibáñez and Johns Hopkins University for their valuable feedback.
The report was approved by Working Party No.2 on Tax Policy Analysis and Tax Statistics in its Inclusive Framework format in August 2024. This report was also reviewed by the Health Committee and its Expert Group on the Economics of Public Health. It is published under the responsibility of the Secretary General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of OECD member countries. The report was prepared for publication by the OECD Secretariat.