Dan Hannan tweeted on Monday that Chilean wine is currently subject to a 32% EU tariff. The Tory pro-Brexit MEP was responding to a Sky News article, which cited a letter from the British Retail Consortium to international trade secretary Liam Fox, arguing that UK importers of Chilean wine could pay more if we opt for a hard Brexit and fall back on WTO rules.
Hannan’s comments about the 32% EU tariff are incorrect, because trade between Chile and the EU is subject to a Free Trade Agreement, which has eliminated tariffs on wine imports.
Hannan subsequently corrected himself, tweeting the following.
But his correction is also inaccurate. No wine imported from the New World suffers a 32% tariff.
It is possible that Hannan got his 32% figure by misunderstanding the fact that the EU’s general import duty for sparkling wines, which account for less than 1% of all wine imports, is €32 for every 100 litres. But even this is not the same as a 32% tariff. After all, it works out at 24 cents per 750 millilitre bottle – much less than 32% of the typical price of a bottle sparkling wine, which is often fairly expensive.
Hannan didn’t respond to requests for comment.
This article was updated on Oct. 15 to take account of the fact that the US-based Wine Institute appears to have made a mistake in saying that wine imports from the US to the EU are subject to a 32% tariff. Passages on South Africa and Australia were removed as they were redundant. A final paragraph was added explaining the difference between 32% and €32/100 litres.
Edited by Hugo Dixon
Why not tell us what the duty is?
The UK duty rates are all here on the gov.uk website:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowance-excise-duty-alcohol-duty/alcohol-duty-rates-from-24-march-2014
So that’s £288.65 per hectolitre (cf €32 per hectolitre tariff).
In France duty is about €0.01 per bottle.