News

The year has changed. So has the government. But the challenges facing the wine industry — Covid, tariffs and climate change — remain.

A coalition of chefs, restaurant owners and local lawmakers wrote to Congressional leaders urging them to end tariffs on European food and wines.

Today, the Coalition to Stop Restaurant Tariffs — a group of award-winning chefs, restaurant and bar owners, and their suppliers — wrote to Congress, asking lawmakers to end crippling food and beverage tariffs.

Dear Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Speaker Pelosi, and Leader McCarthy: We ask for your help to end the restaurant tariffs. Restaurants, bars, and shops, the social heart of our local communities, cannot afford 25 percent tariffs on European food and drink products and cannot recover with them in place. Our industry needs the tariffs to end immediately.

For U.S. importers, especially the small ones, and restaurants that favor supporting boutique French wine producers, the name of Robert Lighthizer will long live in infamy.

Despite sudden additional tariffs, industry groups are organizing with optimism that the incoming administration could issue a game-changing executive order.

In the battle between the U.S. and European Union over subsidies for aircraft manufacturers, wine producers and importers have become collateral damage.

Even if you’re a famous importer, you’re probably a really small family-owned business… Never in a million years did we think the U.S. government would be our biggest barrier to success.

The U.S. Trade Representative recently announced an expansion of tariffs on European wines, food and spirits, effectively delivering what could be a fatal blow to restaurants who are already struggling to keep their lights on during pandemic shutdowns and restrictions.

Fond of Bordeaux? Big fan of Côtes du Rhône? You might want to stock up. New tariffs announced on New Year’s Eve by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer are likely to drive up prices for many of your favorite French wines.

A new round of tariffs on alcohol shipments into the United States from France and Germany took effect Tuesday, raising the duty rate on brandies—including Cognac—and other wines to 25%.