PARIS (Reuters) – The European Commission has approved a 5 billion euro ($5.6 billion) French scheme to facilitate the export of wines and spirits to the United States, it said on Thursday.
The Commission said the temporary scheme – approved under EU state aid rules – will be in place from May 8 to July 8, 2025, and will help exporters of wines and spirits to export inventory to the U.S. before new tariffs take effect.
The U.S. is the largest market for French wine and spirits, with shipments to the country rising 5% in 2024 to 3.8 billion euros.
After U.S. President Donald Trump paused plans to implement 20% tariffs on all imports from the EU, France’s wine exporters said they expected U.S. buyers to stock up during the three-month suspension.
The new scheme aims to allow wine and spirits exporters to ship to the U.S. using a re-insurance mechanism, which provides short-term guarantees to companies that provide insurance against commercial and political risk.
France’s scheme was approved on the same day the Commission proposed countermeasures on up to 95 billion euros of U.S. imports if negotiations with Washington fail to remove the series of tariffs applied by U.S. President Donald Trump.
The new EU measures, in response to U.S. import taxes on cars and Trump’s broader “reciprocal” tariffs, would target U.S. wine, bourbon and other spirits, and are expected by the alcohol sector to trigger retaliation from the U.S. on alcohol exports by EU countries.
($1 = 0.8898 euros)
(Reporting by GV De Clercq and Dominique Patton; Editing by David Goodman, Kirsten Donovan)
