A01250675

Analysis of the official resolution to implement the IEPS tax, to sugar

beverages
Arguments of the article in the Official diary (DOF).

“High consumption of sugar added beverages contributes in a notorious manner to the excess of
energetic intakes and it is an important factor in the development of overweight and obesity in
Mexico”

It is fundamental to have a state policy to change food consumption and physical activity patterns,
because the high prevalence of overweight and obesity represent a problem for public health in
Mexico.

Given the problematic of high prevalence of diseases such as (hypertension, diabetes), it is

important to reinforce effective policies and programs for the prevention of obesity.

The negative effects and the cost involved in the treatments of the diseases should be treated as
fiscal measure, by taxing with IEPS to the establishment at the producer and importer level that
produce beverages with any type of sugar added.

Consistencies or inconsistencies found in the document.

The document does not have statistics information about how many Mexican people has
overweight and obesity, and what percentage of that people has this problem because the
consumption of sugar added beverages. The document begin to talk about obesity and
overweight and then adds chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes, it does not show the
relationship between the diseases to the consumption of sugar added beverages.

Bias or errors found in the arguments (bad arguments, fallacies, omissions, false
inferences and deceptive statistics).

The article is omitting what other factors contribute to overweight and obesity in Mexico, for
example junk food. They argument that the high consumption of sugar added beverages is an
important factor but the article do not declare what is the percentage of that factor compared to
others.

The arguments have a lack of statistic information, they are arguing that is a high prevalence of
diseases but they are not comparing to other diseases that affect the health of Mexicans.

1-High consumption of sugar added beverages is a factor for overweight and obesity. 2- With
taxes people will consume less added sugar beverage. 3-Therefore, it will decrease the
percentage of overweight in Mexicans. This is a fallacy because even if they consume less added
sugar beverages, it does not assure that it will decreased or remove the problem, because there
are other factors that causes overweight.

Conclusions from the arguments.

The arguments are not strong, they do not have a statistic information that back up the arguments
shown and why they want to add a tax to sugar added beverages. If the article is proposing to
 A01250675

add new taxes, it should include the statistic information of how the sugar added beverage is
increasing obesity and chronic diseases; also establish how it can be prove that adding this taxes
will decrease the consumption of this product and at the same time improve the health of the
Mexican people. They are assuming that if they add the taxes, people will no longer buy sugar
added beverages, and then decreased obesity. There are other factors causing this problem and
they need to be considered to have a significant change in the health of Mexicans.

Does the point of view of the document is derived from research?

The point of view of the document is not derived from research, because the article does not
present statistics about how overweight is in Mexico and the relationship to the consumption of
sugar added beverages. In addition, they proposed to add a tax to the beverages that has any
type of sugar added, it is necessary to establish what type and amount of sugar is dangerous to
health.

In which way are you ordering your own arguments to avoid being disperse?

1. Search and analyze the arguments of the document.

2. Look for the backup information that each argument include and for any kind of statistic
information or reference related to the subject.
3. Analyze which are the errors or bias of the arguments.
4. Make a conclusion about the overall document and the arguments inferred in the article.