OLSO: Swedish supermarkets are drooling over a sugar tax hike in neighboring Norway that promises a boom in binge border shopping trips for cheap candy and sodas. Norway’s decision to place a heavy new tax on sugar in order to improve the national diet while raising revenues is setting up a classic clash between social engineering and free-market capitalism, and in even in the heart of Scandinavian social democracy, many are betting the market will prevail. Last year, the Swedish and Norwegian kroner were even and [Norwegian] shoppers didn’t gain as much, so in that sense this tax is a godsend for border shopping,” said Torbjorn Svartz, managing director of Swedish supermarket MaxiMat in Vaamland, a town near the Norwegian border.
Beginning Jan. 1, the Norwegian government increased the current tax on sugary foods by as much as 83 percent, raising the tax on chocolate, for example, to around $2 per pound.
