It is not clear who will benefit if President Trump follows his threat to impose 200 percent rates on all wines and alcoholic beverages of the European Union, but it would certainly not be American consumers.
The rate warning was placed on social media on Thursday by Mr Trump as retribution of up to 50 percent rates for American whiskey and various other products announced by the European Union, who themselves were a reaction to a set of American rates that came into force last week.
Mr. Trump said in his position that rates “will be great for the wine and champagne companies in the US”, but American wine producers don't necessarily see it that way.
“At first glance it may seem like a blessing, but if you look under it, I think you realize that it is really harmful to our industry at a time when we really don't need this,” said John Williams, the owner of Frog's Leap, a family-based wine producer in the Napa Valley.
For most wine producers, the sale depends on a interconnected web of small companies – including distributors, retailers and restaurant owners – that also depend on the sale of European wines.
“I don't think people realize how much the wine infrastructure is dependent on European sales,” said Chris Leon, owner of Leon & Son, a wine shop in Brooklyn, NY “If you delete those funds from the comparison, you reduce the possibility of buying wines from other places. You do not only buy European Wijnen, you harm the ideas of the ideas of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideases of the ideas.”
The American wine industry already has problems. The sale is Daal. Wijnmakerijen closing, proponents of public health care have suggested that every consumption of alcohol is unhealthy and climate change burns catastrophic, spring frost and drought. In the meantime, the rates that Mr Trump has placed on Canadian and Mexican goods have already affected American producers such as the leap of Frog who depend on the export markets in those countries.
“Ontario was our largest trading partner,” said Mr. Williams. “They have canceled all orders, including bottles that were already specifically labeled for the province. We all waited for the next natural disaster. I see this as an unnatural disaster. '
Some companies, such as Demeine Estates, an importer based in St. Helena, California, have tried to anticipate the arrival of rates by storing certain European wines prior to any additional costs.
“We have doubled in some cases, in some we have increased by 20 percent and in some we were conservative,” said Philana Bouvier, the president of Demeine. “You can't do it for everything, because then you get stuck with the inventory. You have to predict correctly and the time will learn if we have done that. '
A few larger wine companies seem less concerned than most. Louis Roederer, the champagne producer, has made for 40 years of sparkling wine in the United States on Roederer Estate, located in Mendocino County in California. In the past decade, Roederer has further diversified his portfolio by buying well -known Californian producers such as Merry Edwards Winery in Sonoma County and Diamond Creek Vineyards in Napa Valley.
“If there are indeed a number of very high rates, it will harm our European wine companies, but our companies in California would benefit,” said Guillaume Fouilleron, the president and chief executive of Roederer USA.
However, Roederer has two advantages. It owns its American paving, Maisons Marques & Domaines, and it has the financial power to withstand a long -term disruption of the global wine industry.
Small companies are much more vulnerable.
“If they are determined, these rates would crush absolutely beloved companies in every city in America,” said Ben Aneff, the managing partner of Tribeca Wine Merchants, in New York City, and president of the US Wine Trade Alliance, who works to guarantee a free trade environment for wine. “You cannot overestimate how many restaurants depend on the income generated from these products.”
It is difficult to present Trattorias without Italian wines or Spanish restaurants that sell new Sauvignon Blanc. But for many restaurants it would be that or the prices drastically increase for European wines.
In 2019 during his first term, Mr Trump set up 25 percent rates to certain European foods and beverages, which caused major difficulties for American wine companies until the reimbursements in 2021 by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. were lifted.
“We had to go through it,” said Doug Polaner, who runs the importer and distributor Polaner Selections with his wife, Tina, in Mount Kisco, NY “It certainly had an effect on our Bottom Line, but 200 percent? That's a non -starter. For now we would have to happen to get back to it.”
Of particular importance, containers of wine that are already on the road are the so -called 'goods on the water'. When they arrive before rates are imposed, no problem will be a problem, but if they arrive after the rates start, importers are confronted with enormous reimbursements.
Jeff Kellogg from Kellogg Selections, who had imported and domestic wines in the Carolinas, Virginia and Washington, DC, Distributed, said he had planned containers with wine to be loaded in France, but on Thursday a message received from the shipper to be considered to be deferred a week.
“We can stop buying European wine until we get some clarity,” said Mr. Kellogg. He added that he would be forced to increase prices for American wines, as he did during the final round of American rates.
“It was because of our company,” he said. “If we can no longer sell European wines, we will drop the seller, administrators and others. It would not be the same company. “
