Winemakers across Europe face fresh uncertainty after the US refused to grant special treatment for wine and spirits in a trade deal with the EU announced on Thursday. While German carmakers have secured a better outcome, wine industry groups in France and Italy warn producers face major difficulties as Brussels prepares for more tough negotiations with Washington.
In July, US President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck an agreement setting a 15 percent tariff on the majority of EU exports to the United States.
But many details were left unclear, with the EU pushing for exemptions and Trump threatening higher tariffs on other goods.
A joint statement Thursday brought some clarity, although negotiations are not over and some moving parts remain.
Relief for cars
The new tariff covers most EU exports, including cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.
EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic said the rate for cars, lower than the previous 27.5 percent, would apply retroactively from 1 August once the EU passes legislation to remove its own tariffs on US industrial products.
Sefcovic said the commission was “working very hard” to deliver on this.
Sigrid de Vries, director of European car lobby ACEA, welcomed the announcement and urged Brussels to move quickly.
She said the deal should be implemented “without delay, mitigating the tariff impact which already has cost automakers millions of euros in duties every day”.
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No exemption for wine
France, Italy and other wine-making countries had pushed for a zero tariff on wine and spirits, but failed to secure one.
“Unfortunately, here we didn't succeed,” Sefcovic said. He added that negotiations would continue but he did not want to give “false promises”.
“These doors are not closed forever,” he said.
French Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard called the deal “unbalanced” in a post on social media platform X. She urged negotiators to make wine a priority and said she expected “strong European measures to support producers”.
Gabriel Picard, head of the French wine exporters federation FEVS, said the sector was “hugely disappointed” and warned the tariffs would “create major difficulties for the wines and spirits sector”.
Christophe Chateau, spokesman for Bordeaux producers, called the outcome “bad news” but added it was still better than the worst case scenario, when Trump had threatened tariffs as high as 200 percen.
French trade minister Laurent Saint-Martin said Paris would keep pushing for “additional exemptions” in the deal.
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Italy in crisis
In Asti, Piedmont, wine merchant Dino Riccomagno said Italy’s producers were already struggling.
“My concern is that the Italian wine sector is already in crisis with Germany, the other major export market. And these customs duties could further aggravate the situation," he said.
“In the cellars, surpluses are already very high, and with the harvest soon to begin, many winegrowers will have storage problems.”
Italian wine exports to the United States were worth nearly two billion euros last year. The Italian Wine Union estimates tariffs could cost the industry €317 million next year, and as much as €460 million if the dollar weakens.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the deal was “not yet an ideal or final point” but noted a “trade war” had been avoided. She said Italy would continue to work with the European Commission to lift tariffs on its agri-food exports.
Meanwhile the US Distilled Spirits Council, a trade group, also expressed disappointment, saying it favoured tariff-free trade on both sides of the Atlantic.
"These new higher tariffs on EU spirits products will further compound the challenges facing restaurants and bars nationwide," said the group's CEO, Chris Swonger.
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'Victory for Trump'
Vincent Vicard, deputy director of the French Centre for Study and Research in International Economics (Cepii), said the deal was a win for Trump.
“It's more of a symbolic victory for Donald Trump, which validates the threats in the negotiations and the violation of World Trade Organization rules,” he told RFI.
"On the European side, it's an abandonment [...]. There was an opportunity to retaliate and deal with the United States as equals. The EU didn't do so. It's a missed opportunity.
"It also raises the question of how to overcome this weakness of the European Union vis-à-vis the United States in the years to come."
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Under the agreement, the EU committed to significantly improving market access to a range of US seafood and agricultural goods, including tree nuts, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, pork and bison meat.
On the other hand, a special more favourable regime will apply as of 1 September to a number of EU exports to the US including "unavailable natural resources" such as cork, all aircraft and aircraft parts and generic pharmaceuticals.
These would effectively face a "zero or close to zero" rate, the commission said.
"Faced with a challenging situation, we have delivered for our Member States and industry, and restored clarity and coherence to transatlantic trade," said von der Leyen.
"This is not the end of the process, we continue to engage with the US to agree more tariff reductions, to identify more areas of cooperation, and to create more economic growth potential".
(with newswires)
