Wine vendors struggling to survive the coronavirus pandemic are also being hit by the U.S. fight with the European Union for aircraft subsidies.
“This will make some people stop working,” said David Bowler, owner of Bowler Wine of Manhattan, an importer and distributor. “It’s like suffering when you’re down.”
The family-owned company was forced to pay $ 28,000 in tariffs earlier this month, $ 16,000 more than it would have paid if two shipments from Europe arrived when it was supposed to be Jan. 11.
The slight delay of the 1,987 cases containing 23,844 bottles, mostly from France to New York, were immediately subject to tariffs that became effective on January 12, although the wines were ordered and shipped before being placed. in practice. “Overnight, a $ 12,000 bill turned into $ 28,000,” Bowler lamented.
The fundraiser began in October 2019, when the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office applied a 25% tax to certain wines imported from France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom. The rates covered wines with less than 14% alcohol, including many rosés, sancerres and risling.
Things got worse on December 30, when the USTR extended tariffs to cover wines containing more than 14% alcohol, which dealt a severe blow to the industry.
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U.S. importers, who had never paid anything more than pennies in the bottle with import duties, are now discharging 25% taxes on some of the wines they import from the UK and Spain and all the wines they import. they import from Germany and France, which is arguably the largest exporter of wine in the world.
Premium cognacs that cost $ 38 or more per liter were also added to the latest round of expensive import taxes.
Bowler’s company, which employs 37 people, including his wife and two children, earned 10 percent of revenue in 2020, just the second decline in his 17 years in business, he said.
Bowler already cut his wife’s and his wife’s salaries by 20% and a manager’s salary by 10%. Sales representatives, whose commissions dropped last year due to the closure of restaurants, received 90 percent of their 2019 revenue with the help of a payroll protection program loan, he said. Bowler.
“We expected to increase it by 5% last year before tariffs,” he said.
Manhattan-based Vintus Wines is a family-owned importer and distributor of restaurants and wine shops, facing a $ 540,000 tax bill for orders expected to arrive in just the first two months of 2021.
And that exceeds the additional $ 1.8 million in tariffs that Vintus paid over the past 14 months during the first round of taxes, President Alexander Michas told the New York Post.
“It’s very frustrating,” Michas said. “We feel we have no control over our business.”
The tariffs are intended to put pressure on the EU for its subsidies to Airbus AIR,
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which competes with Boeing BA based in the United States,
and is politically supported by France, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom
But American wine importers say they are the ones being punished.
“We weren’t the point of the discussion,” Michas said. “We just got dragged and everyone feels sorry for us.”
To allow for the disbursement of additional cash, Vintus has eliminated its marketing expenses and will not be occupying three new positions it hoped to add to the family business earlier this year.
“They’re kicking American companies in the gut in the middle of a pandemic,” added Ben Aneff, president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance.
Aneff, who is calling on the Biden administration to reduce tariffs, said Bordeaux labels with a higher alcohol content will be especially affected.
“The honeymoon is over for Bordeaux,” lamented Aneff, adding that Bordeaux in the French region of the right bank and the wines of its Rhône valley will now see a rise in prices.
It’s not just Bordeaux. A Karine Lauverjat Sancerre that retails for about $ 22 will soon go up to about $ 28, according to Bowler, which could deter some consumers from buying it. However, the importance of the demand for less expensive wines from other parts of the world or even American wines has not increased.
“If someone wants a Sancerre, that’s what they want,” Bowler said. “Wine is not one of those things that people are willing to commit to.” This is especially true for restaurants that like to have a solid selection of French wines, Michas said. “They need to have products that consumers know and trust,” he added.
“Consumers who pay an average of $ 15 for a bottle pay more than $ 20 now, or it’s likely that a $ 15 glass of Sancerre in a restaurant is now $ 17,” Michas said.
Among the wines that Vintas will receive this month and next are those of E. Guigal of the Rhone Valley, which have a price ranging from less than $ 20 per bottle to hundreds of dollars.
A 2018 vintage Château Troplong Mondot from the right margin, which sells for about $ 110 a bottle, will soon cost about $ 140 as they reach retailers, Daniel Posner, owner of Grapes: the Wine, told New Co. York Post.
Although 50% of its sales are French wines, Posner is reluctant to contribute some of these highly priced wines.
Posner reduced the number of Sancerre labels he carries from 10 to four and in everyday wines from the Côtes du Rhône region that could cost $ 12, but are now $ 15 due to the fare.
One of his wealthy clients recently ordered a 2018 Château Lafite Rothschild case, which typically costs about $ 1,000 per bottle, but will now cost $ 1,250 per bottle, Posner said.
“I don’t want my clients to pay $ 3,000 in fees, so I asked them to wait at least until the fall, when the rate will be re-evaluated,” Posner said, referring to the cost of the rates in a case of 12 bottles.
A version of this report has appeared on NYPost.com.