President-elect Donald Trump has announced plans to increase tariffs on most imported foreign goods once his administration takes over later this month, in what he frames as an effort to support American manufacturers and businesses.
Professionals in the wine industry, however, warn that such tariffs — which essentially serve as a tax on imported goods — will actually do more harm than good for their industry, and could put small U.S. businesses under.
“Our point, and what we hope they understand, is that tariffs on wine would be a very poor tool to combat [trade] problems,” Ben Aneff, managing partner of Tribeca Wine Merchants in New York and president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, told Orlando Weekly. “Tariffs on wine do a lot more damage to small U.S. businesses in towns like Abilene, Texas, and Orlando, Florida, than they do in France or Italy or Germany.”
According to the New York Times, Trump has publicly proposed tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on most foreign products, and 60 percent or more on Chinese goods. Trump is reportedly considering a national economic disaster declaration in order to do it, inside sources tell CNN.
Heather LaVine, owner of the Orlando natural wine bar Quicksand and the natural wine shop Golden Hour, admitted she’s concerned about the proposal. “I think anyone who works in wine for a living has heard about the tariff plan and we are definitely all concerned that this could provide disruptions to our business,” LaVine told Orlando Weekly.
“I think any small business and people who care about small business should be against tariffs,” she added. “Only billion-dollar corporations can afford to navigate new tariffs and what this ultimately means for all of us is more corporate monopoly.”
Rob Chase, a member of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance and owner of Digress Wine Bar in Orlando’s College Park neighborhood, is also concerned by the proposal.
Rebranded in 2018 with former co-owner Brian Kearney, Chase’s casual neighborhood bar focuses primarily on “Old World” wines from European countries, he explained — which is exactly where they would take a major hit, if the federal government moved forward with Trump’s tariffs plan.
“I’m buying as much as I can to stock up on a lot of favorites to make sure that we have enough inventory to get us through,” Chase told Orlando Weekly. “If it does go through, and if we’re looking at taking these significant price increases, [we are] really going to have to look at what it does to our sales.”
A higher cost to import foreign wines could lead to shortages in wine selections, and could drive up costs for consumers, too. Staffing — that is, job security for Chase’s employees — could also be hurt.
Currently, Digress has about 11 staffers. And, as some other local businesses struggle to keep their doors open, Chase said he doesn’t want to have to make cuts. “I want to keep everybody here,” he stressed. “If we get to the point where we can’t afford to, that’s of course heartbreaking.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, members of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance gathered on a Zoom call in November to discuss the looming tariffs that could be on their way this month, and to strategize. Nearly 500 members were on the call, according to the Times, including wine retailers, importers, restaurateurs and others.
“The average American voter and consumer thinks that tariffs are paid by foreign countries. They’re not,” said Harmon Skurnik, the group’s treasurer, on the call. “They’re paid by American businesses when the goods arrive at the port, and are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. It’s not paid by foreign countries. It’s a tax.”
This isn’t the first time Trump has threatened tariffs. In 2019, the Trump administration moved forward on enacting 25 percent tariffs on many European wines and other goods. The move was reportedly a form of economic sanction and retaliation for E.U. nations subsidizing the French aerospace company Airbus over the U.S.-owned Boeing.
The Biden administration rescinded these tariffs after about 18 months in 2021. They had specifically affected wines from France, Spain, the United Kingdom and Germany with an alcohol content of 14% or less.
“It was a nightmare the first time around in the midst of COVID,” Chase recalled, of the former Trump-era tariffs. Kearney, Chase’s former partner in the business, left shortly after the 2019 tariffs took effect, and “we were really just scraping by at that point.”
Quicksand’s LaVine, who’s originally from New York, admitted it was a “scary time” for her. At the time, she was still transitioning her business from Troy, New York, down to Orlando, and hadn’t yet opened up shop.
The U.S. Wine Trade Alliance was formed during those earlier Trump-era tariff fights, uniting not only wine bar owners and retailers, but also professionals on the distribution and importing side together for a common cause, according to Aneff, an industry veteran.
“We started to understand that, you know, everyone in the industry had the same threat, had the same risk level for tariffs on imported wine, and we needed one organization that represented all tiers of the wine industry — producers, importers, distributors, retailers, restaurants — that worked in unison to try to mitigate the risk of tariffs on wine,” he explained.
“Tariffs on wine would be a very poor tool to combat [trade] problems,” Ben Aneff, president of the U.S. Wine Trade Alliance, told Orlando Weekly.
Today, they have hundreds of members nationwide, Aneff estimated. And because of how the wine industry is uniquely set up, it’s important to have everyone involved.
Unlike foreign fashion or makeup companies, for instance — which could find creative ways to get around tariffs on imported products — the alcoholic beverage industry has a Prohibition-era tier system that makes such finagling not only difficult, but illegal.
“It would be illegal for a restaurant or a retailer to buy directly from the manufacturer,” Aneff explained.
A wine producer or manufacturer must first sell to a U.S. importer. That importer, usually a small business, must then sell to a U.S.-owned wine distribution company, which can then sell the wine to retailers and restaurants around the country.
So, no shortcuts. “This does not exist in any other industry,” said Aneff. At the same time, because of how this system is set up, Aneff shares that for every dollar that is spent on European wine, U.S. businesses make $4.52.
“This means that tariffs on wine do significantly more economic damage to U.S.-owned businesses than to businesses abroad,” he explained. “It makes them an incredibly poor tool to create behavior change from a target country.”
Chase added that unlike some other foreign products and goods that can be replicated by American manufacturers, the same isn’t necessarily true for wine.
“A lot of people are just saying, ‘Well, go ahead and buy American wines.’ And we do,” he shared. “We support a lot of great domestic producers as well, but you’re not going to find the same level of sparkling wine from Champagne here. You’re not going to find pinot noir from Burgundy.”
Many U.S.-owned wine producers, according to Aneff, aren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of tariffs on foreign wine either. “Most industries, the domestic producer would love a tariff. Like if you’re a steel producer,” he pointed out. But, “Every major domestic wine grower organization is against tariffs on imported wine. From Wine America to the Napa Valley vineyards, they’re all against it.”
As Aneff explained, “The wine business is an ecosystem, and we rely on each other to be healthy. And when we’re not healthy, it hurts everyone in the ecosystem.”
Wine America, a lobbying group for domestic wineries, has spoken out against tariffs before. “If we place a tariff on their products, they’ll do it to us,” argued Michael Kaiser, chief lobbyist for Wine America, in an interview with Quartz.
Domestic wineries also don’t produce the same volume of wine, and their wine tends to be more expensive, in part because European wineries are multi-generational affairs that don’t have the same overhead costs.
“They’re not buying million-dollar acres out in California that, you know, we’ve got to pay for through the cost of a $300 cabernet,” said Chase.
Chase said that Digress is in a “significantly” better place than where they were a few years ago, when the double-whammy of the pandemic and Trump’s 25 percent tariffs hit.
When they first opened, just a couple of years prior, Chase said they entered “with starry eyes and empty pockets.” He recalled they “just kind of took a gamble, hoping this would work.”
Today, as some other staples in the local restaurant, brewery and bar scene struggle to stay afloat, or shutter altogether, Chase admitted he feels guilty that they’re doing so well.
“We’ve really become, you know, a beloved little spot in our neighborhood,” he shared. In addition to a bar, they also have a small food menu, offer wine clubs and tastings, and have a small cellar in-store that can double as a venue for private gatherings.
Chase is unsure of what the future has in store for them, if the federal government moves forward with the tariffs plan. But Aneff told Orlando Weekly that the Alliance has had “some great conversations” with senior members of the House and Senate, to essentially plead their case.
It’s unclear whether Trump would need Congress’ approval to move forward with tariffs, depending on how he plans to go about it. As CBS News reported, it’s complicated.
“We do believe that they are starting to really understand how problematic tariffs on wine are,” said Aneff.
“We hope that when, you know, trade policy is finalized, that they really put that into practice and make sure that everything that they do is done in a way that protects American jobs, and that they don’t put the burden of trade problems on small businesses here in the United States.”
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This article appears in Jan 15-21, 2025.