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Chinese cigarettes, barred from legal sale in Canada, are being briskly bought and sold by black-market vendors in Vancouver and Toronto, some of whom are getting the product from travellers purchasing cigarettes duty free and then exchanging them for services in Canada.

An examination by The Globe and Mail found more than 300 advertisements selling Chinese cigarettes in one week on VanSky, a popular Chinese-language website that caters to the Chinese population in the Vancouver area. About 180 of them clearly noted the cigarettes were duty free or bought at airports.

The market is less active in Toronto: Nine posts were found selling cigarettes on a Chinese website iASK and six of them mentioned their goods were from duty-free purchases.

It is illegal in Canada for anyone to sell tobacco products without a permit. Anyone purchasing duty-free goods can do so only for their own personal or household use.

The RCMP would not comment on any investigation into the online sales. However, the force noted in an e-mailed statement that Richmond RCMP seized approximately 1,500 cartons, the equivalent of 300,000 contraband cigarettes, in a bust last month. Two suspects have been arrested.

Chinese brands cannot be legally sold in Canada. But the volume of ads, especially in the Vancouver area, suggests the demand for them is substantial.

The Chinese-language advertisements say a traveller to Vancouver can exchange one carton of cigarettes for transportation into the city from the airport. Anyone with two or more cartons would be paid cash for the cigarettes.

Cigarettes can also be used to pay for other services, such as accommodation in Vancouver or for sightseeing tours, according to some of the ads.

Meanwhile, duty-free cigarettes are being marketed for almost double the prices they command in China.

The duty-free price of one kind of Chunghwa cigarettes is about $60 to $70 for a carton. The same carton is being sold on the website for around $110. A carton of Double Happiness costs about $11 at airports in China, but the prices online are at least $50.

Canada Youth Hotel (CYH) operates several hotels in and around Vancouver and posts ads on its website for transportation and accommodation in exchange for cigarettes. Chinese brands are preferred, but other brands such as Marlboro and Seven Stars are considered second choice, the ad notes.

CYH's ad says the cigarettes should be purchased at a duty-free store before they are bartered; otherwise, it says, the cigarettes cost more and probably are counterfeit.

An employee of the company, who declined to reveal his name, said his hotel began the service "a while ago." He refused to comment on how the hotel deals with the cigarettes.

"This is our company's internal affair," he said.

The hotel's website says many Chinese Canadians prefer smoking Chinese cigarettes, and international students and travellers are allowed to bring a certain quantity of cigarettes when entering the country. The website for the hotel suggests travellers use their exemption to get cigarettes to be used in exchanges for services. The suggested exchange is an effort to "provide convenience," allowing travellers to use their personal exemptions, according to the CYH website.

Mike Lin, of Dexin Car service in North York, Ont., told The Globe the Chinese cigarettes his companies receive from passengers are only for himself and his colleagues.

"I like smoking Chinese cigarettes; they are good cigarettes," he said.

But a spokesperson for the B.C. Ministry of Finance said both sellers and consumers involved in the activity violate B.C.'s Tobacco Tax Act and could face a fine ranging from $200 to $25,000, imprisonment of up to two years and forfeiture of the tobacco.

"The traveller is acting as a seller and would be subject to the consequences for sellers; the company advertising the pickup service would be subject to the consequences for consumers and possibly other consequences depending on whether the tobacco is for their own use or if they are reselling to others," said Jessica McLachlin, communications manager of the B.C. Ministry of Finance.

Jennifer Fang, project co-ordinator of the Global Tobacco Control Project, Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, said the buying and selling of the Chinese cigarettes represent a lucrative market.

Chinese smokers tend to prefer Chinese-made cigarettes because of the taste: Chinese cigarettes are usually higher in tar content and taste stronger, she said.

But Chinese cigarettes are not currently sold in Canada because the China National Tobacco Corporation does not export here. The only legal way to obtain Chinese cigarette brands in Canada are from duty-free stores or when brought into the country for personal use.

"People that purchase these cigarettes for resale would make a sizeable profit right away at no extra cost for themselves," Ms. Fang said in an e-mail, "[Travellers] are coming through the borders and have this duty-free exemption which would've just been 'wasted' otherwise."

Ms. Fang said she personally experienced cigarettes as "a form of currency" a few years ago.

"I found a driver offering airport transfer services on a Chinese website, and his quote was either $50 or a carton of cigarettes."

She said public education would be a start to curbing the black market because many people may not realize they're breaking the law by reselling or bartering duty-free cigarettes.

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The Canadian Press

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