President Trump met with EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday during his visit to Scotland and verbally agreed to a trade deal that would establish a 15% baseline tariff for most EU products imported into the USA and duty free access for USA products imported into the EU. We note that this agreement is verbal, and there are still details to be worked out, including the status of beverage alcohol. The final agreement will need to be signed off on by the 27th members of the EU, and there are conflicting responses to the deal from EU nations, including negative comments from French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou and Hungarian leader Viktor Orban. For beverage alcohol, Von der Leyen was quoted as saying that the “EU hoped to get more zero-for-zero agreements, notably for wines and spirits, in the coming days.” (BBC news)
WSSA remains committed to supporting the efforts to eliminate tariffs on beverage alcohol and works with the Toasts not Tariffs coalition and the USWTA. Please see link for the latest USWTA announcement and request to send letters of support for duty free status on EU wine imports. Should you need any further information on what you can do to help, please let us know.
We will be keeping a close eye on developments and will update as soon as more details are available.