A new message from the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance:

Important Update for USWTA Members:

EU / US DELAY IN TARIFFS ON BOURBON, WINE, ETC.
 
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
This morning, the EU announced a delay to their retaliatory tariffs on bourbon, whiskey and other products from the U.S. until April 13. We have just confirmed that the U.S. response – including retaliatory tariffs on wine and other alcohol from the EU – will now be delayed until April 14. 

This is a good first step in lowering the temperature, and hopefully giving the U.S. and EU time to come to a negotiated settlement on the underlying issue. While we certainly welcome the news, the current state of purgatory in the industry is still tremendously damaging to businesses all over the United States. 

Currently, the EU appears to be underestimating the U.S. willingness to forcefully respond to any EU attempt to retaliate against the steel and aluminum tariffs. We fully expect the U.S. to tariff the EU at double the value of any retaliation to the steel tariffs, but we are of course urging the administration to ensure those tariffs are thoughtfully determined to keep the harm away from U.S. businesses and limit the damage to the EU. As we know, tariffs on wine do significantly more harm to U.S. businesses, making them needlessly harmful to American interests and a poor lever to influence policy change.

The wine industry can be a model for the fair trade the U.S. desires, benefitting businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs. While we hope the U.S. and the EU are able to resolve the underlying issues, in the event of a dispute, retaliatory tariffs should be limited to products that primarily benefit EU companies. Tariffs on wine are bad for America. 

I know this has been a stressful week, for all of us. We hope to have more news soon, and continue to work each day to tell the story of our amazing industry to the policy makers in Washington. Thank you for your help and support.

Sincerely,

Ben Aneff