Leave wine out of the trade wars

Some of the people who might be affected by a US wine tariff, including Felix, Sylvia and Silvio Jermann (Silvio Jermann, Italy), Tristen Beamon (Wine Exchange, USA) Nadia Zenato (Zenato, Italy), Jean-Luc Thunevin (France), and Diana Berrouet-Garcia (Château Petit-Village, France).

(Link goes to website of the US National Association of Wine Retailers)


If you are one of the many millions around the world who love to drink great wine, there has never been a better time in history to do that.

And it’s thanks to millions of people involved in the growing, making, transporting, importing, distribution, retailing, and serving of fine wine. Their work with wine also sustains huge numbers of families and helps drive entire economies through hundreds of billions of dollars of spinoff economic activity.

So it makes me extraordinarily sad that wine is being sucked quickly into a vortex of global trade wars. And I believe that we will all be the worse for it. And people are going to get hurt.

I’m not qualified to discuss the details of the broader industrial and technology trade disputes that led the United States in October to impose a 25 percent tariff on French, Spanish, German, and UK wines.

Or that led in early December to a formal US proposal to impose an extra 100 percent duty on French sparkling wine, beginning early next year. Or, more importantly, that triggered official consideration by the United States of an additional 100 percent import tax on all European wines, also starting in January.

But I can’t help but think of the human cost the proposed tax would have on so many people in the United States and Europe. Disruption on this scale would tear apart much of the wine world that I care deeply about. And you probably do too.

Making fine wine is about years—or decades, even centuries—of agricultural planning, planting, investing, construction, and risk taking. Markets, whether for American or European wines abroad, take decades to develop. Entire patterns of taste and demand depend on availability and cost of wine. We all appreciate a good bottle of wine at a fair price.

It’s easy to see how some might think wine taxes could be a useful tactic in fighting trade battles in other areas. But it is hard to see how anyone’s interests actually could be advanced by the disruption and uncertainty caused by even the threat of such massive wine tariffs.

They would cause huge numbers of people in the US and Europe to lose their jobs. If prices double, consumers—all of us—would lose choice, in a way unequaled since prohibition.

This is all why I believe wine deserves a special plea for measured and thoughtful consideration, and forbearance, in these trade wars. Many historians have noted that production of wine from grapes coincided with the emergence of modern civilization roughly 10,000 years ago, and I can see through living in Hong Kong, the United States, and Italy, what an important contribution wine has made to human commerce, culture, and creativity. Let’s not lose sight of that.

If you agree, this is a good time to let your political representatives know how you feel. But do so quickly. Readers in the United States can go to congress.gov/contact-us to see how to contact their members of Congress. Or submit your views electronically to the Office of United States Trade Representative, which is taking public comment until January 13 on the proposed 100 percent tax on all wine from the European Union. 

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4 thoughts on “Leave wine out of the trade wars

  1. Couldn’t agree with you more. And, even for California winemakers which i’m one of and the seemingly short term gain from decreased competition that i’ve heard some herald, i find this latest move by Trump absolutely anti American and counter to what has made this county great.Maybe we shouldn’t get political or personal here, but enough is enough. Trump needs to go!
    1. As a matter of principle I believe all tariffs are bad for growth. That said, this proposed tariff on French wine is in response to the French government imposing a retroactive digital-services tax affecting primarily big U.S. tech companies. How would you have responded to the French digital services tax ? I don't think we had any other choice.
  2. I'm an independent and if this passes I will be voting Dem across the board in the 2020 elections. Why should the wine industry as well as other industries be penalized for Boeing, Put a 100% tariff on Airbus.
  3. Thank you for this, James! Well stated. The repercussions of the existing and still-threatened tariffs across the three-tiered US wine distribution system are devastating. Our entire industry, including distributors, wine shops, and restaurants, will suffer severe collateral damage. Many jobs will be lost, and US wine consumers will be left with higher prices and reduced choice. We must continue to fight until all wines are removed from the Airbus carousel and from all future tariff threats. American consumers - please contact your representatives in DC and make your position known!