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VDP President Steffen Christmann is "horrified" by the punitive tariffs imposed by the US government, which are also making German wines exported to the USA massively more expensive. They would have to be used as revenge for supposedly unjustified subsidies in the aircraft industry. Christmann said that unfortunately it is often the case "that the burden of misguided industrial policy is carried on the back of agriculture". The background to the statement is the approximately 25 percent export share of the VDP companies. This tendency is increasing, the VDP president emphasized, and added: "This delicate plant will now be severely damaged if a 25 percent penalty duty is levied from the US state border. Until a bottle of wine arrives in the destination state, the complicated American "three-tier system" adds approximately the same surcharges, so that in the end almost 50 percent surcharge on a bottle of German wine has to be paid in the American market
The Federal Government must therefore "ensure fair conditions for all branches of industry and avert damage to German winegrowers." Christmann demanded that the federal government balance the burdens "that viticulture and agriculture would have to bear for other branches of the economy".
(uka / Photo: VDP)