Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 6/9/20

Wine wholesalers and retailers have been hit with a one-two punch over the past nine months: First, the Trump administration jacked up their business costs by slapping a 25 percent tariff on wine imports from France in a trade dispute with the EU over government support for Airbus. Then the coronavirus pandemic wiped out a large portion of their sales by forcing the closure of restaurants, per our Pro Trade colleagues.

But relief could be in sight, if the Trump administration can be persuaded to lift the wine tariffs and place them on another product instead. By law, USTR is required to periodically review any WTO-sanctioned trade retaliation — a process known as carousel. The agency’s next review starts later this month, with a decision on any changes due by Aug. 12.

“A lot of U.S. wine businesses are genuinely panicked about this,” said Ben Aneff, president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance. “It really really kills their bottom line, it kills their profit margins and at some point businesses are going to have to think [about] other ways to preserve cash, whether that’s through layoffs or temporary closures.”

Meanwhile in France: The French government wants the EU to set up a compensation fund for winegrowers still suffering from Trump’s tariffs (along with storage assistance measures for certain meat producers), POLITICO Europe’s Eddy Wax reports.