Aus-EU trade deal
Posted: Tue Mar 24, 2026 9:02 pm
Some wine related stuff in there. You may see greater detail in Aussie press.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly6g6l6lq7o
Some points of note
- Not sure what wine tariffs there were either way, but moving to zero tariffs should be a good thing for wine enthusiasts and the wineries.
- 'Prosecco' can continue to be used in Aus, but will be phased out for exports. Normally I'm all for protecting the regional products like Parmesan, but for Prosecco, inventing a new grape name (Glera) to replace the commonly used (Prosecco) felt like a protectionist cheat. I'm glad at least locally Aussies can use the name the grape always used to be called.
Will this have material change for wine drinkers / producers?
Hopefully the immediate effect is to make European wines a little cheaper for Aussies. Shipping will still be a major cost. I know there's decent interest already here, but will that interest widen in the mainstream? I suspect it might for well known wines, but eventually see some take a greater interest outside of Champagne etc.
The reverse I'm less convinced about. In winemaking countries like France and Italy, it was incredibly rare to see an Aussie wine on shelves. Online a tiny fraction more, but prices were much too high. More significantly, I sense a very parochial attitude to wines, and little interest in even trying Aussie wines. It will be tough to break into that environment. For non winemaking countries, maybe it's better? Some of the Scandi countries have very strong controls on alcohol sales, forcing anything but low alc beers through the state monopoly outlets. Sweden IIRC prices reasonably fairly, Finland not so.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly6g6l6lq7o
Some points of note
- Not sure what wine tariffs there were either way, but moving to zero tariffs should be a good thing for wine enthusiasts and the wineries.
- 'Prosecco' can continue to be used in Aus, but will be phased out for exports. Normally I'm all for protecting the regional products like Parmesan, but for Prosecco, inventing a new grape name (Glera) to replace the commonly used (Prosecco) felt like a protectionist cheat. I'm glad at least locally Aussies can use the name the grape always used to be called.
Will this have material change for wine drinkers / producers?
Hopefully the immediate effect is to make European wines a little cheaper for Aussies. Shipping will still be a major cost. I know there's decent interest already here, but will that interest widen in the mainstream? I suspect it might for well known wines, but eventually see some take a greater interest outside of Champagne etc.
The reverse I'm less convinced about. In winemaking countries like France and Italy, it was incredibly rare to see an Aussie wine on shelves. Online a tiny fraction more, but prices were much too high. More significantly, I sense a very parochial attitude to wines, and little interest in even trying Aussie wines. It will be tough to break into that environment. For non winemaking countries, maybe it's better? Some of the Scandi countries have very strong controls on alcohol sales, forcing anything but low alc beers through the state monopoly outlets. Sweden IIRC prices reasonably fairly, Finland not so.