SpiritsEUROPE, the representative body for the European spirits’ industry, has said it was “extremely concerned” by retaliatory tariffs against the US.
That, it said, was because they targeted the US whiskey industry and other spirits categories.
On March 12, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the decision to impose counter-tariffs on €26 billion worth of US goods. They included tariffs on US bourbon, a barrel-aged US whiskey made primarily from corn.
According to SpiritsEurope, the announcement came at a particularly difficult time for the domestic spirits sector as it was already struggling with geopolitical tensions and a marked slowdown in many key markets.
The organisation warned that the tariffs would severely impact European Union companies producing US spirits, US firms with major investments in Europe and the entire value chain — threatening countless jobs, including those in rural areas.
“Yet again, spirit drinks have become collateral damage in an unrelated trade dispute,” Pauline Bastidon, Trade & Economic Affairs Director at SpiritsEUROPE said in a press statement on march 12.
“As highlighted in our numerous engagements with the European Commission over the last seven years, we fail to understand how this will help with the broader, unrelated dispute on steel and aluminium.”
Bastidon added: “The clock is ticking. We urge the EU and the US to keep spirits out of unrelated disputes while they work on resolving their differences and protecting the vitally important transatlantic trade relationship.”
Since 1997, there has been a reciprocal “zero-for-zero” agreement between the EU and the US that eliminated tariffs on spirits.
According to the spirits representative body, that led to a growth of 450 per cent in transatlantic trade until 2018 – before retaliatory tariffs were first introduced.
The return of steep tariffs would have devastating consequences for the sector, the body warned, jeopardising robust transatlantic trade and investment flows that have long benefited both sides and forged deep economic ties across the Atlantic.
In 2024, the spirits sector had already been caught in the tariff-crossfire between the EU and China after Beijing accused Europe of dumping brandy on the Chinese market.
In October, China then imposed anti-dumping measures on brandy imports, forcing exporters of the spirit in the EU to put down security deposits, mostly ranging from 34.8 per cent to 39 per cent of the import value.
The deposits made it more costly upfront to import brandy from the EU.
Now, similarly, it appeared that spirits were a pretext to hit back at the EU for its tariffs on China-made electric vehicles, which spiralled into a wider tit-for-tat trade war in the summer of 2024 between the EU and China.
China has launched an anti-dumping probe into European Union liquor products in another sign that trade relations between both are becoming increasingly bitter. https://t.co/tRwdHHY8Hv
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) January 5, 2024
