French appellation wine regions galvanised into action to save the CETA and avoid disputes with China

hen it comes to the free-trade agreement between the European Union and Canada – the CETA – it’s all about crossing your Ts and dotting your Is. “The wine industry is in favour of the CETA”, stressed Jérôme Bauer, chairman of the national appellation wine producers’ federation (CNAOC) on April 4 at a meeting with Cognac winegrowers. His categorical comment sought to galvanise French MPs into action in a bid to counteract the vote against the FTA by French politicians in the Upper House of Parliament. “It’s not game over”, summed up Bauer, who pointed out that “the agreement has been in force since 2017 and has produced results”.

The Alsace winegrower is focusing on education to explain the tangible advantages of the CETA, where a suspension of customs duties in 2017 led to a 24% increase in shipments of wines and spirits, and to dispel any fears, like those of the cattle industry which is afraid of competition from Canada in the future. “Politicians need to listen to us”, continued Bauer. “When a trade agreement is fair and beneficial, we have to keep it”, confirmed Anthony Brun, chairman of the Cognac organisation UGVC. Brun feels that the discussion “seems a long way away from what we experience on a daily basis in the wine industry”, particularly in the Charentes region which exports 96% of its brandies.

The predominance of exports is driving the Cognac industry to rally round in a bid to counter the anti-dumping enquiry by China. “We are hostages”, summed up Brun, who calls for a quick resolution to the issue and warns: “We are the first, but we certainly won’t be the last”. A case in point is the so-called Trump taxes as part of the Transatlantic Airbus-Boeing dispute, where retaliatory measures targeted wines first then spread to spirits. The French wine and spirits industry is calling on diplomats to avoid retaliation and an escalation of the issues, urging the Administration to pull out all the stops and put an end to the threat.