“If the duties come crashing down, our market can be flooded,” he said. “It would spell a death knell for our industry.”
He’s especially concerned about lower-priced wine entering the market. High-end wine from Europe is less harmful, because Indian wineries don’t compete on the price point. In fact, he said having high-end European wine has helped create more of a wine culture in India.
Rodrigues is pushing for a flat-rate duty on all bottles of wine entering India, with an added percentage tax based on the price of the wine.
While Europe’s winemakers have more to lose if a deal doesn’t go well, EU spirit makers have the most to gain.
“If you look at alcoholic beverage consumption in India by type of beverage, spirits is the majority by far,” said Pauline Bastidion, director of trade at Spirits Europe. “There’s more consumption of spirits by volume than even beer.”
European producers already export to India, despite tariffs, and several even have production facilities in the country. India also makes high-quality whiskey, and a trade deal would be a two-way street, bringing their products to Europe, Bastidion noted.
But she’s not getting her hopes up just yet. After all, the EU’s other big trade deal, with South America’s Mercosur bloc, could face a multi-year delay after lawmakers voted for a judicial review — even after the deal was signed.
“Until the agreement is announced, you never know what could happen. We are extremely cautious,” Bastidion said.
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