U.S. Wine Industry Dodges One Tariff Bullet, Still Faces Another

The Trump administration has decided not to place tariffs on French sparkling wine in retaliation for France’s taxes on large tech firms. That’s good news for American wine consumers. The bad news is that the government will be debating over the next few weeks whether to maintain 25% tariffs on many other European wines and could possibly raise them.

The USTR is collecting public comments on the tariffs at its website until July 26. Ben Aneff, managing partner at Tribeca Wine Merchants and president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, believes the 28,000 comments the USTR received during the previous review period made a difference. “Past comments convinced congresspeople,” said Aneff, who has set up a portal to allow both consumers and trade to send comments directly to the USTR and their congresspeople. Wine Spectator has more on the trade battles impacting the U.S. wine business.—Mitch Frank

Tagged : tarriffs, Wine Spectator

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