Australia puts anti-dumping duty on French brandy

Australia is to reintroduce anti-dumping duties on imported French brandy in a bid to provide fairer competition for its own product. The decision has been welcomed by Australian brandy makers, who have suffered losses in market share and profits as a result of imports from France being subsidised.

John Angove of Angove’s Wines, who is Chairman of the Winemakers’ Federation of Australia Brandy Producers Working Group, said, ‘Australia has a proud history of producing high-quality brandy that is enjoyed by many loyal consumers. However, our French competitors have long benefited from substantial and ongoing government subsidies that allow them to undercut prices and steal market share.

‘Local brandy producers were disappointed when duties against subsidised imports were lifted over the last two years,’ he said. Now they have been reintroduced at є2.028 per litre of absolute alcohol.

At the same time, WFA Chief Executive Stephen Strachan is urging the French government to abandon their agricultural subsidies. He said, ‘In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to have things like countervailing duties. Our industry would prefer to see the movement of goods like brandy free of subsidies or tariffs and we would encourage our competitors to adopt a likeminded approach.’

The anti-dumping duty only applies to imported French brandy distilled wholly from grape wine and excludes cognac and armagnac.