Washington (AFP)
Will Donald Trump open a new trade front against the iconic French wine? The US president hinted Monday that he could impose additional customs duties to correct a competition that he considers unfair.
"France taxes wine a lot and we tax little French wine," denounced the US president during a long interview on CNBC.
French wine is known for being "very good", commented the host of the White House, who does not drink alcohol. But American winemakers complain that he enters the US "for nothing".
"It's not fair, we'll do something for that," he also assured.
Donald Trump has repeatedly denounced the imbalances in trade with the US partners. Last year, the trade deficit for goods alone with France was $ 15.81 billion (+ 3.2%).
Last November, the boiling Republican billionaire had already denounced the trade imbalance between the two countries on wine products, in tweets also targeting French President Emmanuel Macron.
"France makes things very difficult to sell American wine in France and levies heavy customs duties, while the United States makes things easier for French wines and has only low tariffs. It must change! ", he was annoyed on Twitter.
His comments on Monday come as the United States and the European Union must engage in formal negotiations to find a trade deal. For now, Brussels does not want to include the agricultural sector in a treaty.
- Friands of French wine -
As a member of the European Union, France does not itself determine the level of taxation of imported products.
But there is an imbalance in tariffs. In the United States, taxes range from 5.3 to 14.9 cents per bottle, depending on the nature of the wine and the degree of alcohol, according to the US International Trade Commission. In Europe, they range from 11 to 29 cents.
The European market is however far from being closed to American wines since between 2007 and 2018, the imports of "made in America" wine, including those of rich California (west), have increased by 200% in France, Europe being by far the largest export market for American wine products, according to French Customs.
The US market, on the other hand, is not as open as it looks. The United States thus recognize trademarks but not appellations of origin - a system often considered too complicated by consumers - which is a brake for French products.
Yet nothing to slow down the growth of French wine and spirits exports to the United States, which rose 4.6% to 3.2 billion euros (3.62 billion dollars) last year, according to the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters of France (FEVS).
The United States is the first market in value for French wine exports, thanks to a middle class American with a strong purchasing power.
And French bottles are in very good place on the shelves of stores alongside American or Latin American wines.
Like consumers of luxury goods, Americans fond of French wine should not turn away en masse if the Trump administration was to impose increased tariffs.
For Paris, maintaining the competitiveness of this important sector for the French economy remains a challenge.
According to the FEVS, wines and spirits represented in 2018 the second largest trade surplus for France after the aerospace sector and ahead of the perfume and cosmetics industry.
? 2019 AFP