AFP

Paris, Jan. 27: French wines are still "in the mouth of the wolf" and threatened with new American sanctions in the dispute between Washington and Brussels on Airbus and Boeing, despite the truce mentioned this week on the digital tax.
"Since the middle of the week, we have felt a reduction in the pressure concerning possible American retaliations against the French will to institute a digital tax, but French wine exports have been subject since October 18 to taxes of 25 % in an aeronautical conflict Boeing / Airbus which can still escalate by mid-February ", summarises for AFP a senior official in the wine sector.
"We are worried about the risk of a hardening of the aeronautical conflict which penalises our exports month after month" adds Bernard Farges, president of the National Confederation of the producers of wines and brandies with controlled designations of origin (CNAOC). "French wines are in the mouth of the wolf" he adds.
In addition to French wines, Washington was authorized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) to apply these taxes on Spanish olive oil, Italian cheeses and Scottish whiskeys, in retaliation for subsidies paid to Airbus by the European states.
In France, the entire wine sector has asked the government to quickly set up a "French compensation fund for impacted companies" to defend a sector "attacked in a conflict that is not its own".
The concern is all the stronger with a turnover of more than one billion euros in 2018, "the United States is the first export market in value of French wines", recall M Farges and Louis Fabrice Latour, Vice-President of the Federation of Wine and Spirits Exporters (FEVS).
As a sign that the taxes of October 18 are already taking their toll, the value of exports of Bordeaux wines to the United States fell by 46% in November over a year. For MM. Farge and Latour, the truce interview on the digital file only "saves time" and "does not settle the Airbus file".
France said this week that it postponed the levy this year of a tax on digital giants to avoid new American taxes in the field of luxury and champagnes. Paris is now awaiting the formal suspension by the Trump administration of the procedure opened in December against the French digital tax which could lead to sanctions.
On the Airbus file in addition, "there is a system called carroussel within the US Department of Commerce which allows after four months after the triggering of the first taxes to review by increasing their amount or their purpose, what the Americans can do at any time until February 15 or 16, since the WTO has granted them the principle of taxing up to $ 7.5 billion in trade flows and they have not fulfilled their quota on October 18 ", worries Mr. Farges. "They only used 1.4 billion of the 7.4 they had. They have a capacity to raise the temperature which is not very reassuring," said a source close to the negotiations.
In turn, the EU should be authorized next year by the WTO to impose customs sanctions against the United States, accused of having subsidized Boeing. "But the world of French wine will not be able to wait so long" estimates a professional.
To settle the dispute, the new European Trade Commissioner, Phil Hogan - former Agriculture Commissioner - visited Washington in mid-January.
In the process, Donald Trump and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced this week in Davos that they will conclude a comprehensive trade agreement in the coming weeks, a surprise declaration to try to calm the game on both sides. of the Atlantic.
To defend the French and European agricultural sector, the Minister of Agriculture Didier Guillaume indicated this week that France now wishes to obtain a "food and agricultural exception" in world trade for future free trade treaties, in order to spare these sectors from trade wars.