US booze importers cancel European wine shipments and brace for devastating losses as Trump tariffs loom
US booze importers are canceling shipments from Europe — and bracing for potentially devastating losses — as President Trump threatens tariffs as high as 200% that could go into effect next month.The US Wine Trade Alliance, which represents some 6,000 retailers and wholesalers, said President Trump’s threat to slap a 200% tariff on European alcohol has had a chilling effect, with some importers immediately canceling orders that weren’t already on ships or at docks.Grassroots Wine, a Charleston, SC-based distributor, nixed a $1 million order of European wines last week.
Its owner Harry Root says he meanwhile has a shipment of $250,000 worth of Italian and French wines that are supposed to arrive in early April.A 200% tariff would spark a tax bill of $500,000 for the 23-year-old, family-run business, whose clients include stores and restaurants in South Carolina and Alabama.“That’s more money than we make in profit every year,” Root told The Post.“If we had to come up with $500K it would begin the wind down of our company.”The US Wine Trade Alliance is pushing for a so-called ‘goods-on-the-water’ exemption that would allow any US business to avoid the tariff if their merchandise is in transit when the tax goes into effect.In the meantime, the USWTA advised its members in a memo this week to “halt all shipments of wine, spirits & beer from the EU” because the current risk of tariffs is “too high.”“The flat reality is there is no guarantee of an exception,” according to the USWTA’s Tuesday memo.“We believe it possible the US could immediately retaliate with tariffs on April 2,” according to the USWTA memo.On Thursday, the EU pushed back the deadline for its tariffs on American bourbon to mid-April after it announced a 50% whiskey tariff — set to be imposed on April 1 — as a response to Trump’s new tariff on all steel and aluminum imports that went into effect this month.“This provides additional time for discussio...