COPY LINK

POLITICS

French wine exporters hit by new 25% tariff from USA

The United States on Tuesday slapped an additional 25 percent tariff on French wines, the latest move in a 15-year-old spat over EU subsidies to Airbus.

Published: 12 January 2021 09:33 CET

French wine exporters hit by new 25% tariff from USA

Bottles of French red will get more expensive in the US, following the new tax. Photo: AFP

US Customs and Border Protection said in a note issued on Monday evening that the new tariffs would enter into effect on January 12th, after suspending the tax “until further notice” last week.

Imposed as a retaliatory measure in a longstanding dispute between the US and EU over subsidies to aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the new rules affects export of French wines (excluding sparkling wines) and certain aircraft parts.

In addition to the 25 percent tariff imposed on a range of French wines and cognac, the aircraft parts concerned will be subject to a 15 percent tariff.

The new tariffs supplemented those imposed on a list of EU products in 2019, including French wines of less than 14%, which caused US imports of French wine to plummet.

The US imposed the punitive tariffs after the World Trade Organisation faulted the EU for failing to remove illegal subsidies for the pan-European aerospace group Airbus, whose main rival is the US giant Boeing.

“It will be much more difficult for consumers to buy French wines,” Anthony Hudry, export sales director for Château Puech-Haut wines, told French media LCI.

Hudry worried that Americans in the future would “turn to Californian wines, or other export markets that are not subject to taxes”.

The US is the leading non EU export market for French winemakers in terms of value. Americans bought €1.6 billion worth of French wines and spirits in 2018.

Together with the UK and China, the US accounts for 50 percent of France's overall wine and spirit sales.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.