Trump’s risk to impose a 200% tariff on European alcohol rattled markets, sending Campari, Pernod Ricard, and LVMH shares tumbling. The U.S. accounts for €13.1bn in EU beverage exports, with wine and spirits most in danger.
Donald Trump’s newest commerce salvo is sending shockwaves by Europe’s wine and spirits trade.
The U.S. president introduced Thursday on Reality Social that his administration would impose a 200% tariff on European wines, champagnes, and different alcoholic merchandise until the European Union removes a 50% tariff on American whiskey.
The transfer despatched shares of main European beverage firms tumbling, whereas U.S. spirits makers noticed a lift.
The U.S. marketplace for European alcohol: Key commerce figures
American shoppers have lengthy been main consumers of high-end European wines and spirits, and tariffs of this scale might make many imports prohibitively costly.
The US is a essential export vacation spot for European alcohol producers, having imported €13.1 billion price of beverage, spirit, and vinegar merchandise from the EU in 2024, based on the Worldwide Commerce Centre.
Amongst these, €5.2 billion got here from wine, with the U.S. accounting for almost 20% of the EU’s complete wine exports.
The spirits and liqueurs sector is much more uncovered, with €5.1 billion in shipments to the U.S. final yr—22% of the bloc’s complete exports on this class.
European beer exports are much less reliant on U.S. demand, with the EU delivery €1.1 billion price of beer to the U.S. final yr—round 12% of its complete beer exports.
“The European Union, some of the hostile and abusive taxing and tariffing authorities on the earth… has simply put a nasty 50% tariff on whisky. If this tariff will not be eliminated instantly, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% tariff on all wines, champagnes, & alcoholic merchandise popping out of France and different E.U. represented international locations,” Trump wrote on Reality Social.
“This will probably be nice for the wine and champagne companies within the U.S.”
In 2018, the EU initially imposed a 25% tariff on American whiskey in response to U.S. tariffs on European metals, resulting in a pointy decline in U.S. whiskey exports to Europe.
Whereas these tariffs have been suspended in 2021, the U.S. not too long ago determined to reintroduce duties on European metal and aluminum, prompting the EU to reinstate and double its tariff on American whiskey to 50%, efficient April 1, 2025.
Inventory market reactions
Trump’s announcement despatched European alcohol shares tumbling, as traders digested the potential impression of tariffs on key exports.
Shares of Davide Campari-Milano, the Italian proprietor of Campari, Aperol, and Wild Turkey, dropped 4.2% by 3:00 p.m. Central European Time.
France’s Pernod Ricard, behind Absolut Vodka, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and Martell Cognac, dropped 3.9%.
Dutch brewing large Heineken slid 0.6%, whereas LVMH, the posh powerhouse that owns Moët & Chandon and Hennessy, declined 1.4%.
Whereas European shares took successful, American distillers gained. Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel’s, rose 2.1%, reflecting expectations that Trump’s stress might result in the elimination of EU tariffs on American whiskey—a transfer that may reopen European markets to U.S. producers.