March 28, 2024

Episode #547 – 100% Tariffs on French Wine Could Pummel the World Wine Industry like a Meteorite

Stories concerning what some say is an eminent 100% tariff on imported wines have been dominating a large swath of newsprint and digital news acreage virtually every day for months now and for those who truly enjoy the finer things in life, this news has been especially disconcerting. As unimaginable as it might have seemed a few years ago, tariffs of 100% and even more on wines from France and other parts of the EU appear to be a very serious prospect on the horizon.

On this week’s show David checks in with Gladys Horiuchi, the Communications Director of The Wine Institute, one of the most powerful organizations in the wine world. They’re an advocacy group for California wine, but do a lot for wine all over the world. In recent months, Gladys’ office has been all ablaze with a lot of discussion and questions and information dissemination about the tariffs so, on this episode of Grape Encounters, David asks Gladys to drill down to the details about what’s really going on and what it means to the everyday wine consumer.

EU tariffs have currently been levied on a number of different European products and wine happens to be one of them. The Wine Institute has always taken the position that they don’t want wine pulled into trade disputes that don’t involve wine. In this particular case, an aircraft subsidy dispute last October and now a digital services tax are fueling fear that wine drinking consumers will bear the brunt of retaliatory disruption of wine trade around the world.

Some experts believe that if you can’t import as many wines into the country or it costs more for the importer to do so, then it will hurt American distributors and importers. And that, in turn, will trickle down to the consumer.

Also joining David on the show from the Wine Institute is Nancy Light, the organizations Vice President. On this part of the show, David and Nancy will take on some decidedly lighter topics to end the discussion on a very positive note.

This week’s edition of Grape Encounters is sponsored by Total Wine & More where you’ll find a nearly endless selection of wine, beer and spirits that pair perfectly will everything you’ll be doing to make the most of winter 2020!

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