Trump right and wrong on French wine tariffs
Posted Nov 13, 2018 05:55:18 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
PARIS — U.S. President Donald Trump is partly right but far from completely correct when he says that France’s “big tariffs” make it hard for American vintners to sell their wines here: Wrong because customs duties on imported wines are applied not by France but by the European Union. Right because American tariffs are “globally” less than what Europe charges, the French customs authority says.
Prices aside, wine made in the U.S. is apparently appreciated in the European Union — the world’s premier importer — and in France, where the value of wine imported has risen 200 per cent between 2008 and 2017, according to the French Federation of Wines and Spirits Exporters.
Trump went after France on several fronts in tweets on Tuesday, including blasting tariffs on its emblematic wine.
The Associated Press
