The Political Economy of Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Taxation in Latin America: Lessons from Mexico, Chile and Colombia
Open accessAbstract
Background: In Latin America, diet-related non-communicable diseases and sales of sugar-sweetened beverages continue to rise at an alarming rate. Calls for action suggest "multi-sector" and "multi-stakeholder" approaches involving civil society and the private sector, including transnational corporations. While the focus has often been on forming “partnerships” of public and private sectors, ensuring the primacy of public health goals remains a significant governance challenge. This paper analyses this governance challenge using the experiences of Chile, Mexico and Colombia in the adoption of taxation of sugar-sweetened beverages. The three countries offer useful comparisons given their similar political and economic systems, institutional arrangements and regulatory instruments. We conducted a qualitative synthesis of the existing empirical evidence applying a political economy analysis to identify successes and failures during the policy process to adopt and implement the tax.Results: The findings suggest that a major constraint was the political influence of transnational corporations in the policy process and on stakeholders. Intergovernmental support was critical to frame the sugary drinks beverages (SSBs) tax aims, mechanisms and its benefits, and for countries to adopt the measures. Coalitions for and against the tax were critical for the policy debates, and a lack of transparency throughout the agenda setting was diluted by powerful TNCs presences in the countries studied.Conclusion: Governance arrangements involving partnerships with private sector actors should recognize the asymmetry of power among them and address it. Such arrangements should adopt clear mechanisms to ensure transparency and accountability of all partners, and avoid the undue influence of unhealthy commodity industries. Support of several governmental entities simultaneously, grassroots groups, and civil society groups in NCD prevention policies is also needed.
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Weak worldwide responses also reflect the power of the food industry to undermine political commitment for action.
“Weak worldwide responses also reflects the power of the food industry to undermine political commitment for action 205,206 .”
From Ultra‐processed foods and the nutrition transition: global, regional and national trends, food systems transformations and political economy drivers (2020) · cites this paper as [205]
The food industry, including predominantly transnational food corporations and the peak industry groups that represent them, have strongly resisted policy responses using standard 'playbook' tactics.
“The food industry, including predominantly transnational food corporations and the peak industry groups that represent them, have strongly resisted policy responses using standard 'playbook' tactics 97,205 .”
From Ultra‐processed foods and the nutrition transition: global, regional and national trends, food systems transformations and political economy drivers (2020) · cites this paper as [205]
These tactics have included lobbying policy-makers, making political donations, framing policy debates, adopting self-regulation to pre-empt and delay government action (policy substitution), public relations campaigns portraying business as 'part of the solution', and partnerships with community and sporting associations.
“These have included inter alia lobbying policy-makers, making political donations, framing policy debates, adopting self-regulation to pre-empt and delay government action (policy substitution), public relations campaigns portraying business as 'part of the solution', and partnerships with community and sporting associations 151,205,207,208 .”
From Ultra‐processed foods and the nutrition transition: global, regional and national trends, food systems transformations and political economy drivers (2020) · cites this paper as [205]
As suppliers of jobs and tax revenue, the food industry has gained 'productivist power' through its importance in national economies, and greater international capital mobility as trade liberalisation enables TFBCs to punish or reward governments for their policy decisions, by shifting or threatening to re-locate jobs and investments.
“Furthermore, as suppliers of jobs and tax revenue, the food industry has gained 'productivist power' through its importance in national economies, and greater international capital mobility as trade liberalisation enables TFBCs to punish or reward governments for their policy decisions, by shifting or threatening to re-locate jobs and investments 14,92,205 .”
From Ultra‐processed foods and the nutrition transition: global, regional and national trends, food systems transformations and political economy drivers (2020) · cites this paper as [205]
A recent review on the political economy of nutrition reported industry interference as the most important barrier to achieving strong regulatory actions on unhealthy diets, obesity and diet-related NCDs in HICs and UMICs.
“A recent review on the political economy of nutrition reported industry interference as the most important barrier to achieving strong regulatory actions on unhealthy diets, obesity and diet-related NCDs in HICs and UMICs 205 .”
From Ultra‐processed foods and the nutrition transition: global, regional and national trends, food systems transformations and political economy drivers (2020) · cites this paper as [205]
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- Authors
- Carriedo, A., Koon, A., Encarnación, L. M., Lee, K., Smith, R., & Walls, H.
- Affiliations
- World Public Health Nutrition Association
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- NCD Alliance
- Simon Fraser University (CA)
- University of Exeter (GB)
- London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (GB)
- Venue
- Globalization and Health
- Published
- 2020-06-30
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 5-5
- ISSN
- 1744-8603 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7786456
- OpenAlex
- W3120551747
- Cited by
- 83
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 9 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 14.31
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Globalization and Health (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Research Square (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Open Research Exeter (University of Exeter) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Greater South Information System
- Funders
- Canadian Institutes of Health Research (398188)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Global Public Health Policies and Epidemiology
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Public Policy and Governance
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Public Health Policies and Education
- Keywords
- sugar-sweetened beverage tax, political economy, policy coalitions, multinational corporations, industry influence, public health governance, non-communicable diseases, added sugars, civil society organizations, transparency and accountability, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Latin America
- MeSH terms
- Sugar-Sweetened Beverages, Chile, Colombia, Humans, Latin America, Mexico, Taxes
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