Since the tariffs imposed by the Government of Donald Trump were announced to various sectors and countries of the European Union, including wine from Spain, CECRV, EFOW and other national and European sectoral organizations have been requesting a series of measures urgently, both to the EU institutions, and to the Government of Spain. In this context and in the face of pessimistic perspectives that a negotiated solution to the trade conflict by the EU and the US can be found. In the short-medium term, organizations representing Spanish and European designations of origin as a whole consider that it is time to move from words to deeds and demand more concrete, effective and urgent measures.
Both CECRV and EFOW, representing the quality figures, understand positively the will shown by the European Commission, which has announced legislative changes in order to strengthen European wine promotion programs in third countries (via rate increase European co-financing and increased flexibility to modify the programs and their duration), and by the European Parliament, which approved a resolution on November 28 requesting compensatory measures for the affected sectors. But they consider that this is not enough and the reality, more than a month after the entry into force of these tariffs, imposes both the speedy completion of these measures at European level, and the adoption, also at national level, of measures urgent and more concrete support to the affected sectors.
USA It is among the main destinations for the export of our wines, especially wines with designation of origin, which are the ones that contribute the most value to the sector as a whole. The wine, in addition, is one of the emblematic sectors of the EU and our country, with a clearly international vocation and a source of prestige and country image as few economic sectors. Given the enormous importance of the US market for many wineries of numerous appellations of origin and taking into account that the wine sector is being collateral victim of a conflict that does not concern it (the Airbus case), it is time that both the institutions of The EU and Spain approve concrete measures to support the wine sector, with the creation of a compensation fund that allows direct aid to operators and promotional campaigns in the North American market with sufficient budget to generate a country brand in the affected sectors.
These measures must serve to, on the one hand, offset economic losses, derived from the significant increase in the price of our products in the North American market compared to those of our direct competitors that do not suffer this tariff. And on the other, to sustain and increase the notoriety of our products in the US market, since the loss of market share that our wines will foreseeably experience in the United States will have important consequences in terms of turnover and therefore of investment and employment for many important wineries and denominations of origin of our country and, therefore, in the rural environment.
