French champagne producers and exporters decried a US government threat to slap tariffs of up to 100% on a range of French products including sparkling wines, saying they have nothing to do with the dispute and calling for government help.
The punitive duties announced on Monday follow France’s new digital services tax which Washington says will harm US tech companies.
“We can understand the various positions but Champagne is not related to this. We fear we will bear the costs of a policy that is beyond us,” Taittinger Director General Damien le Sueur said.
Other types of French wines already face additional U.S. duties of 25% as part of the Unites States’ WTO-sanctioned response to illegal EU aircraft subsidies.
“For six weeks now, our companies have been strongly affected by the Airbus litigation. We must avoid creating newproblems,” FEVS Chairman Antoine Leccia said in a statement.”
“We therefore solemnly call on the President of the Republic to take, from today, all the necessary initiatives, at national,bi-lateral and international levels, so that our sector does not pay the price of the economic and political choices made by France”, it said.
Exports of French sparkling wines to the United States amount to nearly 700 million euros ($771.54 million) per year, FEVS said.
The United States is Taittinger’s second largest export market. The famous Champagne house is looking at whether it can ship bottles overseas before possible tariffs are put in place,but Le Sueur said these stocks would not cover sales for the whole of 2020.
