Last year, I said it was hard to believe it was the fourth iteration of this annual column. It’s even harder to believe this is year five, but it’s December again. The premise is simple: 10 questions I have for the cigar industry for the following year. Last year we added a Graded column in which Patrick Lagreid looked at the previous column and provided an analysis of how the questions played out. Patrick and I also tried to avoid having questions repeat in consecutive years, something that definitely made this column more interesting. 1. HOW WILL THE FDA DECIDE TO REGULATE PREMIUM CIGARS? Up until late last year, it wasn’t clear when the U.S. Food & Drug Administration would announce its plans to regulate the premium cigar industry; turns out the answer was April 24. While it’s important to point out that nearly everyone who claimed to be “in the know” seemed pretty far off about what the FDA initially announced as part of the Deeming Regulations, our best sources continue to tell us they expect the first announcement regarding finalized plans to be announced during the summer of 2015 at the earliest. There’s a lot at stake in the deeming ...
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