The jab at the wine trade between the US and EU was greeted with derision and puzzlement in France, even by Trump’s biggest fans in the country. The Rassemblement National (National Rally), Marine Le Pen’s far-right party, which had previously approved Trump, criticised the US president over the attack. Gilbert Collard, a politician who supported Le Pen’s party, told French TV that although he felt Trump was “absolutely right” in all his attacks on Macron, he was “absolutely wrong on what he says about French wine”. Besides the inevitable “Make America Grape Again” jokes after Trump’s tweet, there was general confusion in France about what Trump actually meant.On Trade, France makes excellent wine, but so does the U.S. The problem is that France makes it very hard for the U.S. to sell its wines into France, and charges big Tariffs, whereas the U.S. makes it easy for French wines, and charges very small Tariffs. Not fair, must change!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018
Wine tariffs are fixed between the US and the EU and have been for decades. For Trump, whose family has a winery in Virginia, to go to war on French wine would also be to go to war on Italian, Spanish and other European wine.
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