经济学人下载:墨西哥软饮料 嘶嘶愤怒

Business
商业报道

Soft drinks in Mexico
墨西哥软饮料

Fizzing with rage
嘶嘶愤怒

A once-omnipotent industry fights what may be a losing battle
一个曾经无所不能的行业的一场必败之仗

LA MANSION steakhouse inside Mexico's lower house of Congress has become the headquarters of a lobbying effort the likes of which congressmen say they have never seen before.
墨西哥国会下议院LA大厦内的牛排餐厅已成为游说广场，国会议员们说他们以前从未见过。

There is so much wining and dining that one lawmaker, proposing a bill on October 15th to regulate the lobbyists, claimed he was talking to a half-empty floor because his colleagues were too busy being schmoozed at La Mansion.
这里有这么多的美酒和美食，一个国会议员于10月15日提出了一项法案以规范游说，因为他的同事们忙于在La大厦闲聊，他抱怨说自己在对地板说话。

The lobbyists work mainly for soft-drinks companies such as Coca-Cola, PepsiCo and their respective Mexican bottlers Femsa and Cultiba.
这些游说者主要为软饮料公司，如可口可乐、百事公司和他们在墨西哥的饮料瓶公司Femsa和Cultiba工作。

Their focus is a proposal currently under debate in Congress to slap an excise tax of one peso on to the price of a litre of fizzy drinks.
他们关注的焦点是一个建议，目前国会正在辩论的一升碳酸饮料征收一比索的消费税。

Though the industry has faced down consumer activists in the past in Coca-Cola's biggest market by volume outside the United States, this initiative comes directly from President Enrique Pea Nieto.
虽然行业之前说服了消费者活动家，这里是可口可乐在美国以外最大的销售市场，这一举措直接来自总统恩里克·佩尼亚·涅托。

The lobbyists may have blundered in their attempt to kill it.
游说者在试图扼杀此税的努力中做错了。

The government's argument is simple.
政府的理由很简单。

Mexicans consume too many fizzy drinks.
墨西哥人消耗太多的碳酸饮料。

The habit has helped make the country one of the most obese in the world, and obesity is a killer:
这个习惯使墨西哥成为世界上最肥胖的国家之一，而肥胖是一个杀手：

Mexico's mortality rates from diabetes are staggeringly high. The government proposed the sin tax to discourage soft-drinks consumption.
墨西哥的糖尿病死亡率高得惊人。政府提出了罪恶税以阻止软饮料消费。

The industry's reaction has been apoplectic.
业界的反应是愤怒。

In full-page ads in national newspapers it has argued that the tax is regressive and satanises soft drinks, which it claims do not cause obesity.
在全国性报纸的整版广告认为这项税收是退步的和丑化不会引起肥胖软饮料。

With a hint of xenophobia, the lobbyists call it the Bloomberg tax, because New York's mayor, Michael Bloomberg, has also sought to tax fizzy drinks.
伴随着一个仇外心理暗示，游说者称它为彭博税，因为纽约市长迈克尔·布隆伯格也设法对碳酸饮料征税。

Bethany Gomez of Euromonitor International, a consultancy, says the industry is right to be worried.
欧睿国际的伯大尼·戈麦斯说业内人士的担心不无道理。

More than half the fizzy drinks sold in Mexico are in bottles of two litres or more, which is where the extra pesos would be most noticeable.
超过一半的在墨西哥销售的碳酸饮料每瓶在两升以上，多征收的比索将是很明显的。

A switch to smaller sizes would hit volumes.
变成小包装会打击销售量。

What is more, the tax may set a precedent.
更重要的是税收可能会开创一个先例。

Coca-Cola seems to be worried that whatever happens here could spread to the rest of Latin America, says Javier Trevio, a ruling-party lawmaker.
可口可乐似乎担心，无论在这里发生什么事都可能会蔓延到拉丁美洲的其余地方，执政党国会议员哈维尔·特雷维尼奥说。

The lobbyists have made some missteps, congressmen say.
国会议员说游说者已经有一些失误。

They have created enemies in other industries by proposing that the tax be charged on sugar content, not just on soft drinks.
他们因建议根据软饮料含糖量征税创造了在其他行业的敌人。

That angers companies like Nestle, which makes sugary snacks, as well as Mexico's politically connected sugar-cane producers.
这激怒了生产含糖食品的雀巢公司以及墨西哥与政治势力有关系的甘蔗生产者。

They have also been too overt in their lobbying, in a political system that is used to more subtle forms of collusion between lawmakers and business.
他们在游说时表现的太明显，尤其是在国会议员和商业的关系很微妙的一个政治制度时。

One of Femsa's main lobbyists, a former ruling-party bigwig, is said to have had a blazing row with the current head of the party in the lower house, who resented being bossed around.
可口可乐的主要游说者之一，前执政党要人，与现任执政党下议院的头头进行了激烈的争吵，而此人讨厌被别人颐指气使。

So the soft-drinks lobbyists' tactics may have backfired.
所以软饮料游说者的策略可能会适得其反。

As The Economist went to press there was still no final agreement on the soft-drinks tax—but congressmen appeared ready to approve the one-peso levy—as well as extending another tax to junk food.
如经济学家所说现在对软饮料税仍然没有达成最终协议，但国会似乎准备批准比索征收以及另一个垃圾食品税。