A Silver Lining on Wine Tariffs Emerges

200% tariffs on EU Wines Probably Off Table After U.S. Whiskey Tariffs Withdrawn

The 20% tariffs on wines from the European Union that Donald Trump has unilaterally imposed will undoubtedly harm the American wine marketplace and cost Americans more money…if they choose to continue buying wine. The full 20% tariffs are set to go into effect on April 9th.

However, there is some good news concerning the potential to see even higher tariffs placed on EU wines. And good news is something we could also use.

As you will recall, President Trump in March threatened to place 200% tariffs on wines from the EU. This threat came in response to the EU’s announcement that it would place 50% tariffs on American Whiskey. This threat was in response to the President’s placement of tariffs on EU aluminum exports to the U.S.

In an unfortunate bit of bad reporting, many media outlets claimed after the across-the-board tariffs were announced on April 2 that at least it wasn’t going to be 200% tariffs on European wines. Well, it turns out that the tidal wave of tariffs that President Trump announced on April 2nd were NOT meant to be the final word on tariffs on EU wines, and there was no reason to believe that the threat of 200% tariffs was off the board. These across-the-board tariffs that amounted to 20% on all European goods, including wine, have nothing to do with the aluminum/whiskey/wine/200% tariff threats.