French wine producers have usually had a love-love relationship with america, their largest export market. However President Trump’s menace to impose 200 p.c tariffs on European wine, Champagne and spirits despatched shudders via grand châteaus and small vineyards throughout the nation.
“A 200 p.c tax on European wines and spirits would imply a direct halt to all shipments to america,” Gabriel Picard, chairman of the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters, instructed French media on Thursday. “That’s virtually 4 billion euros wiped off the French commerce stability, for zero acquire.”
The dimensions of the tariff advised by Mr. Trump drew reactions of disbelief. “We’re in shock,” mentioned Laurent Delaunay, the president of the Burgundy Interprofessional Wine Bureau, which represents Burgundy winemakers, who added that the tariffs can be “catastrophic” if imposed.
“America is our largest market,” he mentioned. “We’ve got enterprise relations that return years.”
France’s two largest Champagne producing associations had been left briefly tongue-tied. “We’ve got simply obtained the message from the American president; at this stage, we have now no remark to make,” a spokeswoman for Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin Champagne mentioned in an e-mail.
However producers on the bottom voiced deep concern in regards to the uncertainty of with the ability to do enterprise with American wine importers, who must determine whether or not they would find a way or keen to pay such steep tariffs, and in that case, find out how to cross them on to prospects.
“A 200 p.c tariff is so much; it might kill the enterprise completely,” mentioned François Huré, who together with his brother runs Huré Frères, a small Champagne home that exports 10 to 12 p.c of its annual manufacturing to cavistes and eating places in america.
He mentioned some consumers in america had already braced for the opportunity of 25 p.c tariffs, however not one within the triple digits. “Our consumers in the present day, our distributors in america would cancel their orders, as a result of they received’t have the ability to afford it,” Mr. Huré mentioned. “It might be an enormous brake on the Champagne trade.”
Taxes at such a excessive degree would basically double the value of a bottle offered in america. “If Champagne doubles from $60, who can pay $120? Nobody,” he mentioned. “Besides possibly the tremendous wealthy. However that’s not sufficient to run an trade on.”
America is the most important marketplace for France’s Champagne trade, with 25 million to 26 million bottles despatched throughout the Atlantic final 12 months, Mr. Huré added. In 2024, France exported roughly €3.9 billion price of wines and spirits to america, representing 1 / 4 of its complete exports.
America can be the highest market when it comes to worth and quantity for Bordeaux wines, the Bordeaux Wine Council mentioned in an announcement on Thursday. The identical goes for Cognac, which Nationwide Interprofessional Cognac Bureau mentioned generated 70,000 jobs in France. The sector “doesn’t settle for being sacrificed because of European political selections that don’t concern it,” the group mentioned in an announcement.
European spirits producers had been fearful their drinks would get caught within the crossfire. On Wednesday, SpiritsEurope, the European trade foyer, known as on the European Union and america to go away their sector “out of their disputes” after Brussels introduced on Wednesday elevated duties on a sequence of imported American merchandise.
After Mr. Trump’s announcement Thursday, the group shouted out its dismay. “This cycle of tit-for-tat retaliation should finish now!” it mentioned in an announcement. “Reimposing tariffs can be a step backward — hurting companies, employees and shoppers on either side.”
France’s overseas commerce minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, mentioned Thursday that France was decided to answer Mr. Trump’s escalation. “We won’t give in to threats,” he mentioned on X, including that Mr. Trump “is escalating the commerce warfare he selected to unleash.”
