This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Czechs ban spirits exports as death toll reaches 23
The Czech Republic has banned the export of all spirits as 23 people have now died as a result of drinking methanol-laced alcohol.
The Czech Republic has now banned all spirits exports from the country
Following a country-wide ban on the sale of spirits above 20% abv last Friday 14 September, Prime Minister Petr Necas has since imposed the new emergency legislation to quell the number of casualties caused by the illegitimate alcohol.
The move comes after both Slovakia and Poland had issued a ban on imports from the Czech Republic, and a stern warning from the EU that they would issue a ban themselves if the country did not take appropriate measures themselves.
However the blanket ban of all spirits sales within the Czech Republic has been described as “dangerous” and “counter-productive” by the European Spirits Organisation (CEPS), which has appealed to the government for an immediate lift.
Paul Skehan, director general of CEPS, has said in a letter to Necas and the Czech Cabinet that such a ban is discriminative against international brands
“We consider the ban on all spirits to be a counter-productive measure as we fear it will drive consumers into precisely the illegal sales channels your government is working to remove,” he said. “Rather than banning legitimately produced, taxed, packaged, stamped, and distributed spirits brands from the market, we urge you to recognize that such brands actually provide an assurance of quality and safety to consumers.”
“Dangerous measure”
CEPS claims that while the Czech government is losing 25million koruna (US$1.32m) per day on lost excise duty, the cost to legitimate spirits producers is potentially devastating.
Skehan continued to add that a new planned alcohol stamp certification scheme, designed to quell counterfeit spirits sales, would be ineffective as “tax stamps are frequently faked, reused or their absence is not supervised or penalized… and will continue to allow illegal products to come to market”.
He called for the reactionary yet “concerted effort” of the Czech police force to crack down on illegal alcohol production to be instigated as a year-round effort.
However an announcement by the Czech government yesterday revealed plans to permit the distribution of newly-produced spirits and some liquor stocks within the next week.
A press statement issued on its website, read: “The Cabinet recommends to the minister of health and minister of agriculture to draft within the next week measures that will allow the production and distribution of spirits to be restored, and charges the minister of health, the minister of agriculture, the minister of industry and trade, and the minister of finance with proposing measures allowing the sale of stocks affected by the current ban.”