Trump’s tariff threat is already killing business in southern France’s wine region
The vines in the famous wine district in southern France have hardly started to bud, but this season has turned many of the top European producers into sour flavors.
“We have one [worker] The rest…because we can no longer pay.
“So that’s a jobless person and we have to find some other market.”
Jauffret said the tariff threat from U.S. President Donald Trump has become a disaster for French producers and American wine consumers.
“I think he’s going to kill the wine market in the United States,” Jauffret said.
Trump threatened European alcohol producers with disastrous 200% tariffs as part of a nasty trade dispute initiated by Trump himself. It began with the US action on aluminum and steel, but now includes cars, auto parts and wine.
“We should place orders in the U.S. market in April, and today they said they won’t order,” Ore told CBC News during a visit to the brewery earlier this week. “This is our main importer in California.”
The tariffs are paid by importers when they enter the United States, and since the goods were ordered in advance, it would take several months to arrive, so it would be impossible for American buyers to know what they were paying, or whether they were ready to pay an additional markup.
Export is crucial
Terre Forte castle produces about 15,000 bottles (mostly red) per year in 25 hectares of vineyards. Ore said 70% of the couple’s wines are exported, and although Canada is actually their largest foreign market, it is very important to travel to California and New York 10%.
Distributors who canceled sales this week apologized but said they couldn’t seize the opportunity of thousands of bottles of French wine, which could end up being more expensive than they planned.
“[The importer] Say he is sorry for us, I am sorry for them. They know their business may die due to these tariffs. ” Aure said.
Europe exports more than $14 billion in wine and wine to the United States every year. French wine accounts for more than $2 billion.
French industries have been in other trade disputes with countries such as China and the impact of climate change and the impact of overall decline in alcohol consumption worldwide and global impact.
On Friday, the EU revealed many support measures that have been underway for the industry for months, including additional financial help to boost tourism, foreign advertising campaigns and cut the traditional tape festival for growers.
Revenge issue
Trump and his officials are uncertain about European alcohol products.
The U.S. president threatened to crack down on all EU imports with a 25% tariff, which would theoretically include wine. European retaliation may then trigger other duties.
Trump raised the 200% fine on alcohol as the EU counterattacked American whiskey after the U.S. imposed responsibilities on European steel and aluminum earlier this month.
The retaliation issue has been raised again after the U.S. says all European vehicles will face 25% tariffs starting April 2. European trade officials held a meeting with Trump officials at the frustrated White House, saying it was inevitable that it would reach at least 20% tariffs.
Wine producers say it is impossible to know how they should react in the coming weeks and months given Trump’s unpredictable laws and misinformation.
“How can you find a strategy without a single person- [Trump] No strategy.
During his first term as president, Trump imposed 25% of duties on a small selection of goods produced in the EU, including many wines, as a punishment for subsidies to European airlines. The penalties were lifted in 2021 after Joe Biden became president.
Have ulterior motives?
Paris-based economist Anne-Sophie Alsif said she believes Trump is using tariffs to bring EU negotiators back to the negotiation table, back to a separate issue involving laws regulating how American tech giants operate in Europe.
The EU has vigorously engaged in several antitrust cases against major U.S. tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple, believing that these companies have abused their dominance, stifled competition and hurt consumers. Two new EU laws, the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act, also attempt to implement standards for misinformation and hate speech.
“I think all this is aggressive [U.S.] Trade policy may be to review this technology agreement and have more favorable conditions for U.S. companies in terms of digital aspects. ” said Alsif.
In trying to resist Trump’s tariff measures, Canadian and European governments find themselves trapped in a common cause, but not necessarily the one they tend to fight together.
“We will fight the U.S. tariffs with our own retaliatory trade actions, which will have the greatest impact on the U.S. and have the lowest impact in Canada,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a press conference on Thursday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney will travel to Europe to support Canada in the trade war with the United States as his cabinet is committed to diversifying the country’s trading partners.
Still, in social media posts later that day, Trump linked actions in Canada and Europe anyway.
“If the EU works with Canada to cause economic damage to the United States, then large-scale tariffs (much more than what is currently planned) will be put on both,” he said.
See other places
Some French wine producers have begun a long and tedious process of trying to find new markets.
Marin Stoffer and champagne maker Roger-Constant Lemaire said his actions are not far from France’s Reims and are one of them.
“We will go to Canada in May to Calgary and Vancouver … we have to target other markets and look for opportunities there,” Stoffer told CBC News.
But he added that opening up new markets is time-consuming and often has no returns, especially when the United States is the top international market for French Champagne.
Roland Lescure, the representative of the French National Assembly, represented a French citizen overseas in Canada and the United States, said “the French people are worried.”
A Canadian citizen who plays a key role in the deposit and investment funds in Quebec said the current position of the French government is to encourage negotiations rather than immediate revenge. Although he admits that this may happen eventually.
“We need to stay firm. We need to be strict. We need to be strong,” Lecure said in a CBC News interview in Paris. “But be too alert, if we do participate in this business war, we will all lose.”
Lescu told CBC that Trump’s trade war, and his dressing up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Owal’s office, and his embrace of Russian narratives of the Ukrainian war, contributed to how the French viewed the American people.
“Only 20 French people really believe that the United States is their ally,” he said. “It’s a big change – I mean, it’s changed overnight.”
