The suspension for four months of US customs taxes on European wines is “excellent news”, before a final agreement, believes Saturday March 6 the president of the Interprofessional Council of Bordeaux Wine (CIVB) Bernard Farges.
“We have been waiting for it since the introduction of this tax on October 18, 2019. It is a relief that will allow us to regain market share in the United States”, specifies the president of the CIVB.
According to the inter-profession, the losses linked to this tax amount to 100 million euros in turnover for the Bordeaux sector in 2020 and 400 million euros for all French wines. Regarding sales in volumes, Bordeaux wines had succeeded in “limiting breakage” in 2020 by reducing wine prices “to collect the 25% tax”, summarizes Bernard Farges.
Relaunch activity in the United States
This four-month suspension of US customs taxes was announced Friday afternoon following a telephone exchange between the President of the European Commission Ursula Von der Leyen and the President of the United States Joe Biden.
“We are in a complicated context in China and in Europe because of the Covid”, explains Bernard Farges, specifying that this moratorium will make it possible to “relaunch activity” in the United States, the second market for Bordeaux wine after China.
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On Twitter, the Minister of the Economy and Finance, Bruno Lemaire, for the “French winegrowers” rejoiced at the end of the “trade war” between Europe and the United States. Airbus and its American competitor Boeing, and through them the European Union and the United States, have been clashing since October 2004 before the WTO over public aid paid to the two groups, deemed illegal.
The United States was authorized in October 2019 to impose taxes on nearly 7.5 billion dollars (6.8 billion euros) of European goods and services imported each year, including wines up to 25%. Earlier in the week, London and Washington had succeeded in reaching an agreement allowing, among other things, to suspend tariffs on British products such as Scotch whiskey.
(With AFP)
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