Viniportugal warned Tuesday that consumers have a 30% increase in wine price, as a result of the 15% tariff imposed by the US.
Viniportugal was one of the associations received by the government, at a meeting to assess the impact of US tariff policy and the agreement with Brussels.
The 15% rate can be very harmful, as “it may imply a 30% consumer climb,” said Viniportugal President Frederico Falcão in statements to Lusa.
In confirming, the lower segments will be the most penalized, expecting a reduction in consumption.
Frederico Falcão also said that the European Union (EU) is in a more disadvantageous situation against countries such as Chile and Argentina, who received a 10%tariff.
On the other hand, as pointed out, there is a risk that many importers force producers to lower the price of wine to reduce the impact of tariff policy.
“Downloading 15% is not easy and often our producers do not have this margin,” he said.
Still, it has ensured that the sector can now have some stability, since since March, US administration has spoken of tariffs with various orders of magnitude.
On the other hand, he said that negotiation meetings are still running with some sectors, thus maintaining the hope that wine could be taxed at 0%.
The government, through the Ministries of Economics and Agriculture, has gathered with more than 40 associations and confederations of exporting sectors.
Quoted in a statement, the Minister of Economics and Territorial Cohesion, Castro Almeida, argued that these meetings are important to auscultate the main sectors and to evaluate how “they are absorbing the measures that were designed to respond to the impact of tariffs on Portuguese products”.
In April, the government approved the reinforce program, a package of more than 10 billion euros, which integrates measures such as credit lines and bank guarantees, to support national companies in the face of the impact of tariffs.
Viniportugal recalled that many measures, when applied to the ground, are not effective due to excessive bureaucracy.
“What we really needed is that negotiations ended with zero tariffs. Not happening that, we will have to continue working to find solutions,” concluded Frederico Falcão.
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