French wine producers have typically had a love-love relationship with the United States, their biggest export market. But President Trump’s threat to impose 200 percent tariffs on European wine, Champagne and spirits sent shudders through grand châteaus and small vineyards across the country.
“A 200 percent tax on European wines and spirits would mean an immediate halt to all shipments to the United States,” Gabriel Picard, chairman of the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters, told French media on Thursday. “That’s almost 4 billion euros wiped off the French trade balance, for zero gain.”
The size of the tariff suggested by Mr. Trump drew reactions of disbelief. “We are in shock,” said Laurent Delaunay, the president of the Burgundy Interprofessional Wine Bureau, which represents Burgundy winemakers, who added that the tariffs would be “catastrophic” if imposed.
“The United States is our biggest market,” he said. “We have business relations that go back years.”
France’s two biggest Champagne producing associations were left temporarily tongue-tied. “We have just received the message from the American president; at this stage, we have no comment to make,” a spokeswoman for Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin Champagne said in an email.
But producers on the ground voiced deep concern about the uncertainty of being able to do business with American wine importers, who would have to decide whether they would be able or willing to pay such steep tariffs, and if so, how to pass them on to customers.
“A 200 percent tariff is a lot; it would kill the business totally,” said François Huré, who with his brother runs Huré Frères, a small Champagne house that exports 10 to 12 percent of its annual production to cavistes and restaurants in the United States.
He said some buyers in the United States had already braced for the possibility of 25 percent tariffs, but not one in the triple digits. “Our buyers today, our distributors in the United States would cancel their orders, because they won’t be able to afford it,” Mr. Huré said. “It would be a huge brake on the Champagne industry.”
Taxes at such a high level could double the price of a bottle sold in the United States. “If Champagne doubles from $60, who will pay $120? No one,” he said. “Except maybe the super rich. But that’s not enough to run an industry on.”
The United States is the biggest market for France’s Champagne industry, with 25 million to 26 million bottles sent across the Atlantic last year, Mr. Huré added. In 2024, France exported approximately €3.9 billion worth of wines and spirits to the United States, representing a quarter of its total exports.
The United States is also the top market in terms of value and volume for Bordeaux wines, the Bordeaux Wine Council said in a statement on Thursday. The same goes for Cognac, which National Interprofessional Cognac Bureau said generated 70,000 jobs in France. The sector “does not accept being sacrificed due to European political decisions that do not concern it,” the group said in a statement.
European spirits producers had been worried their drinks would get caught in the crossfire. On Wednesday, SpiritsEurope, the European industry lobby, called on the European Union and the United States to leave their sector “out of their disputes” after Brussels announced on Wednesday increased duties on a series of imported American products.
After Mr. Trump’s announcement Thursday, the group shouted out its dismay. “This cycle of tit-for-tat retaliation must end now!” it said in a statement. “Reimposing tariffs would be a step backward — hurting businesses, workers and consumers on both sides.”
France’s foreign trade minister, Laurent Saint-Martin, said Thursday that France was determined to respond to Mr. Trump’s escalation. “We will not give in to threats,” he said on X, adding that Mr. Trump “is escalating the trade war he chose to unleash.”
