Customs duties: Independent winegrowers want to "bang their fists on the table" and attack the EU

The French Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS) on Friday deplored the entry into force of a 15% customs duty on European products from August 7, and called on France and the European Union to "continue negotiations."

US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday imposing higher tariffs on dozens of countries.

"What appeared to be a sword of Damocles in April has become a reality," lamented Jean-Marie Fabre, president of the Independent Winegrowers of France union, on RMC this Friday. "We will have to bang our fists on the table to ensure that the European Commission does not sacrifice the sector in the deal, for the benefit of the German automobile industry or some other industrial sector," he continued.

"We must impose on the European Commission our desire to see the sector exempted," insists Jean-Marie Fabre.

"Minister Annie Genevard and Minister Laurent Saint-Martin are mobilized and committed to this issue, and for them, the sector remains a key sector - and that's a good thing," says Jean-Marie Fabre. "Today, we must impose on the European Commission our desire to see the sector exempted. If this is not the case, the economic consequences, at the heart of the regions and for the French economy, will be terrible."

"We welcome the efforts already made to try to obtain the exclusion of wines and spirits from this 15% duty," declared Gabriel Picard. "But the situation cannot remain as it is," he continued, believing that "negotiations must continue," insisted Gabriel Picard, president of the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS), quoted by AFP.

"We're haranguing our political leaders so they can get this negotiation from the European Commission. For now, it's on hold. They'll probably ask us to make tariff efforts to try to cover part of the increase linked to these customs duties with them," continues Jean-Marie Fabre. "We're going to ask importers to no longer have any margin, and work at zero margin. This will be an additional difficulty if we simply want to maintain our market share for the American consumer," he anticipates.

"It's the leading country in the world in terms of wine and spirits consumption, and for France, it's our leading market in terms of turnover," recalls Jean-Marie Fabre, who mentions the loss of 800 million to 1 billion euros in turnover five years ago during the 25% customs duties, already applied at the time by the Trump administration.

By 2024, the United States would account for 10% of champagne exports by volume and more than 14% of the industry's revenue, or €820 million, according to the CIVC. With a definite impact on prices for the American end consumer, a 15% surcharge is expected to reduce champagne consumption in the United States, Maxime Toubart, co-president of the Interprofessional Committee for Champagne Wine (CIVC), warned AFP. "But we can't concretely measure today the number of bottles we'll lose."

Since the end of 2024, French producers have been "overstocking," says Jean-Marie Fabre, in anticipation of the election of Donald Trump, who had already announced a protectionist policy.

And since the beginning of April, when the 10% reduction came into effect, "orders have been coming in sparingly, depending on restocking and specific products, but the volume of business has dropped dramatically," he reports.