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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I wanted to write a note to update you on the tariff front after the results of the election.

For several months now, we’ve prepared our approach with a Trump victory scenario in mind. Our industry has risks, but we are in a significantly better place now, thanks to your support, than we were in 2019. 

Since July, the USWTA has been working with our team at Akin Gump to identify key members of the Trump world that could be influential on trade matters. Many of these are members in Congress who have purview over trade, or are thought to have the ear of Trump or his trade team. In a nutshell, our work boils down to showing key members of the incoming administration how tariffs on wine do more harm to domestic businesses, than to businesses abroad. For members of Congress, we use their constituent businesses to help tell that story, which is particularly effective. Because of the three tier system, for every $1 the U.S. sends to Europe for wine, U.S. companies receive $4.52 in revenue. This is a strong contrast with the other potential targets of retaliatory tariffs. It makes tariffs on wine both problematic for U.S. small businesses, and a poor remedy in a trade dispute. This means we have a shot. But we must engage our entire industry to give us the best chance to avoid tariffs. 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Going forward, our challenge becomes more urgent. First and foremost, we need your participation. We will ask for funding help as well, but educate yourself on the risks, as well as what we can do to mitigate those risks. Retaliatory tariffs are zero-sum. It’s us, or it’s them. They will choose, in the instance of French DSTs, $1.3 Billion in French products or services to tariff. Our job is to show them that there are more effective options to tariff than wine. If you have contacts in the target districts (or any you think useful), we will need your help. We need your help to make ever more connections. Your efforts can have a real impact.

You can find a list of our current Congressional Engagement Activity in the STATEMENTS tag under NEWS on the nav bar of this site. If you or your business has contacts or ties to any of these districts, please let us know.

In summary, there are now foreseeable risks in front of us, but we are in as good a place now as we could hope to be. The work we did last round was incredibly helpful, and laid the groundwork for our messaging now. It doesn’t mean we don’t have a great deal of hard work in front of us, but we are much better positioned than we ever have been. But make no mistake, we must all pull together to give us the best chance. And remember: Once tariffs are in place they are incredibly difficult to remove, so it is in our best interest to front-load our work now.

If you are on our ML, an invitation to our Zoom meeting this Monday November 11th at 2:30pm EST is forthcoming. You can email USWTA Secretary Chimene Macnaughton to be added to our list here: askusiwta@gmail.com.

Let me be the first person to thank you for your support in this effort. Without your funding, time, and energy, we would be in a significantly weaker position, but let’s not kid ourselves, we are just getting started.

Best regards,

Ben Aneff