Trump hits out at "unfair" French wine industry practices
US president Donald Trump has taken a swipe at the French wine industry, accusing it of unfair practices.
He said the country charged “big tariffs” compared with the “very small tariffs” that the US put on French wine.
“On trade, france makes excellent wine, but so does the US,” tweeted Trump. “The problem is that France makes it very hard for the US to sell its wines into france and charges big tariffs, whereas the US makes it easy for French wines and charges very small tariffs. Not fair, must change!"
The EU places tariffs from between $0.11 to $0.29 on every bottle imported from the US, while bottles shipped from the EU to the US are faced with a tax of $0.05 according to the Wine Institute.
Last year the US bought $1.8bn worth of French wine, while France shipped just $71m worth of US wine according to the International Trade Centre. The US is the largest destination for French wine, accounting for 17% of the country’s exports.
Trump’s tweet comes at a time when relations appear to be deteriorating between him and French president Emmanuel Macron. Earlier in the week Trump hit out at France’s war record in response to Marcron’s suggestion that Europe needed an army to protect itself against China, Russia and the US.