Reims (France) (AFP) – With the United States the largest export market for champagne, producers of France’s leading sparkling wine had little to celebrate on Thursday about facing an additional 20 percent tariff, although they held out hope for negotiations. “We’re all worried about the decisions made by the American president,” said David Chatillon, copresident of the Comite Champagne that is the trade association for the industry. Trump spared almost no nation on Wednesday, hitting friends and foes alike and reserving some of the harshest tariffs for major trade partners, including the European Union and China. EU products will face an additional 20 percent tariff from next week.
Some chose to look at the decision as a glass half full, as Trump had threatened last month to slap EU wine and alcohol with 200-percent tariffs and singled out champagne. “So with that, we’ve gone from 200 percent to 20 percent, and no specific sectors,” said Vitalie Taittinger, who heads up her family’s namesake champagne house. Trump’s use of the word “reciprocal” in describing the measures “can lead one to think that there’s hope and room for negotiation,” she told AFP. The champagne house, which ages its wines in cellars adapted from chalk pits dating from the 4th century, exports some 600,000 bottles annually to the United States, its second-largest market. Taittinger said she hopes the EU and United States can avoid public posturing and a political overreaction and engage in measured negotiations to find a resolution.
Maxime Toubart, the other copresident of the Comite Champagne, said “the entire industry is mobilised against this tax,” which “puts in danger our presence on the American market,” as well as the economic viability of the sector and the Champagne region. The trade group said champagne is “a key element of the French economy” with nearly six billion euros ($6.7 billion) in annual sales. Nearly 30 million bottles of champagne worth 810 million euros were exported to the United States last year. “With these 20-percent tariffs, we’ll have a drop in volumes, but that doesn’t mean that the (US) market is finished for us, which could have been the case with 200-percent tariffs,” said Christine Sevillano, head of the Champagne independent vintners trade association.
However, the additional US levies are “an additional burden to all of those that we already have,” said Sevillano, pointing to climate change and regulatory directives. “The United States is after all a very important market which had been rising in terms of volume and value recently,” she added.
Sevillano, who exploits nearly eight hectares (20 acres) in the Marne river valley, said small independent vintners are at a disadvantage compared to large champagne houses, as developing export markets is costly and time-consuming. “Were my investments just money for nothing? Will my new partners work with me? I don’t know.” But Sevillano said she “won’t give up because it’s a lot of money, after all.” She expressed hope that politicians on both sides of the Atlantic would opt to deescalate the situation and find a solution.
The wider wine and spirits sector also hopes negotiations could lead to the additional tariff being removed. In 2024, the EU shipped eight billion euros in alcoholic beverages to the United States, its top export market. Wine accounted for five billion of those exports.
© 2024 AFP
