The price of wine in Portugal is set to skyrocket as a result of the tariffs likely to be imposed by the administration of President Trump on imports into the United States.
Tariffs were always set to hurt consumers, but ViniPortugal, the promoter of the ‘Wines of Portugal’ brand, has explained now by how much.
The association was one of a number received by representatives of the government yesterday.
ViniPortugal president Frederico Falcão explained afterwards the fairly cataclysmic effects of the initial deal negotiated with the US by Brussels – the fine print of which is still subject to further negotiations.
He also explained how the European Union is currently at a disadvantage compared to wine producing countries like Chile and Argentina which have only had a 10% tariff imposed on their exports to the United States.
In Falcão’s opinion, the lowest segments of the Portuguese market will be the most penalised, with a reduction in consumption expected.
There is also a risk that importers could force producers to lower their prices in order to reduce the impact of the tariff policy.
“Lowering prices by 15% is not easy (…) often, our producers do not have that margin,” he said.
Representatives of the ministries of the economy and agriculture met with more than 40 associations and confederations from the export sectors.
Quoted in a statement, Minister of the Economy and Territorial Cohesion Castro Almeida argued that these meetings are important to listen to the main sectors and assess how “they are absorbing the measures that have been designed to respond to the impact of tariffs on Portuguese products”.
In April, the government approved the Reforçar programme, a package of more than €10 billion, which includes measures such as credit lines and bank guarantees to support Portuguese companies facing the impact of tariffs. But ViniPortugal has pointed out that many measures are not effective due to excessive bureaucracy.
“What we really need is for the negotiations to end with zero tariffs. If this does not happen, we will have to continue working to find solutions,” concluded Frederico Falcão.
Source material: LUSA
