Cheers!

As consumers around the world look forward to welcoming in the New Year with a bottle of bubbly, the famously teetotal President Donald Trump is threatening to impose a tariff of up to 100% on French sparkling wines. This is in retaliation for the French Government’s planned 3% tax on digital services that would affect companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook.

The Americans were the largest consumers of French exports of sparkling wine in 2018, importing 37,000 tonnes out of total French exports of 227,000 tonnes. The Americans tend to buy higher quality champagne, with an average customs value per tonne of $15,300.

The more ‘prudent’ British, on the other hand, imported about 22,000 tonnes of French sparkling wine at a cost of only $8,800 per tonne. With British consumers switching over the last few years to cheaper alternatives to champagne, such as Italian prosecco, an article in The Daily Telegraph last month suggested that champagne producers have dropped their prices by as much as 25% in 2019 to recapture UK market share.

 The Japanese have even more refined taste for champagne than the Americans, importing 16,000 tonnes of French sparkling wine in 2018 at an average value of $26,000 per tonne.

However, a 100% tariff on champagne would surely make Americans’ champagne the most expensive in the world.