Paul Blair, Americans for Tax Reform, was one of those issued an invitation, along with the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Michelle Minton. It was to be an opportunity for pro tobacco harm reduction advocates to argue their case and explain why the President had acted too rashly. Not only that, they were set to explain how the push to ban flavoured products could impact on Trump badly in the forthcoming election campaign.
According to Bloomberg, the meeting was also to include a number of “top health officials” including the increasingly barmy U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, a strong supporter of banning all eliquid flavours apart from menthol and tobacco.
Michelle Minton said: “They should do research before implementing nationwide policies. I would encourage them to continue this outreach and continue to look into this issue before they do anything.”
Tony Abboud, Vapor Technology Association, said: "I think if the proposal goes out, and flavours are pulled from the market, you would see a dramatic adverse economic impact. I certainly hope that will be taken into account when you have 14,000 small business owners who would be virtually eliminated overnight."
Paul Blair commented: “I think that the White House didn’t necessarily have an accurate feel for where conservative groups were at on this. I think there’s a little bit of chaos over at the White House given how strong the pushback has been.”
The meeting is set to be rescheduled according to White House aides, but no date has been set.
