France's get-tough approach to tobacco fails to light up EU

France urged its EU partners Tuesday to stub out “tobacco tourism” by smokers shopping around for the best cigarette prices, warning that this was costing tax revenues and undermining health campaigns.

But French proposals to raise the minimum excise duty charged by EU member states for a packet of cigarettes received a lukewarm response at a meeting of EU finance ministers, and are likely to stay on the backburner for some time.