April 26, 2010 10:06PM # Chilean Government Now Wants Higher Taxes on Junk Food By [Juan Carlos Hidalgo](https://www.cato.org/people/juan-carlos-hidalgo) --- SHARE Following Rahm Emmanuel’s advice of not letting a crisis go to waste, the new center-right government in Chile now wants to extend the permanent rise in tobacco taxes—supposedly adopted as a measure to finance post-earthquake reconstruction—[to foods with high concentrations of salt and trans fat](http://blogs.elmercurio.com/cronica/2010/04/26/salud-plantea-que-alza-en-impu.asp) \[in Spanish\]. Jaime Malañich, the Health Minister, said that the earthquake is opening up an opportunity to implement a measure that would increase the government’s revenue and fight obesity and that has been considered for many years. My colleague Ian Vásquez [wrote a few days ago](https://www.cato.org/2010/04/20/a-disappointing-start-in-pineras-chile/) that, by announcing unnecessary tax increases as post-earthquake reconstruction measures, the recently-inaugurated administration of Sebastian Piñera was quick to disappoint those who expected a bold move toward strengthening free market policies that have made Chile a Latin American success story. If these announcements are any guide, expect more disappointments. [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).