FOREIGN TRADE: Easier on the Draw

For the first time in ten years, American cigarettes were officially on sale in Paris last week. After about a year of negotiations, SEITA, the French government tobacco monopoly, made an agreement to import Camels (R. J. Reynolds) and Old Golds (P. Lorillard), pegged the price at 150 francs a pack, or about 42¢.

SEITA not only wanted to dry up the black market, but hoped to boost its sales of tobacco paper in the U.S., where it once supplied 90% of the market. During World War II, U.S. companies started making their own paper, and SEITA has been unable to win back the market. Last week’s deal with Reynolds and Lorillard calls for 70% payment in barter (half in paper, half in miscellaneous commodities), and 30% in dollars. In some Paris circles, the legalization of Camel and Old Gold sales also called for a new snobbery in cigarette fashions. Said one young ady: “The only cigarette that suits my taste now is a Chesterfield.”