“What I can say is the bigger the tariff the more difficult it’s going to be to absorb those costs.”
She said New Zealand was at a disadvantage from a tariff perspective as some of its competitors in the wine sector, including Australia, Chile and Argentina, faced lesser tariffs of 10%.
“What we’ve seen with these [tariff] announcements is that a lot of those countries are at different tariff rates from us… it’s that differentiation that’s a real concern.
“We’re still well placed because we have a strong reputation for the wine that we produce in New Zealand. We’re known for producing distinctive wines, sustainable wines – that hasn’t changed, but certainly from a tariff perspective it puts us at a disadvantage.”
Wilson said it was difficult to say if the tariff hike would affect export volumes to the US.
“We’ll certainly be keeping a watch out for that, but certainly we hope that the existing reputation that we’ve got will put us in good stead.”
NZ Winegrowers advocacy general manager Sarah Wilson.
The US was the second-largest export destination for New Zealand goods last year, with a total value of $9 billion, according to Stats NZ.
“What people have been talking about a lot is the competitive disadvantage relative to other partners...”
She said importers typically pay tariffs through customs agents when they pick up goods.
“But basically, people have contracts and that tariff is sometimes shared, sometimes passed back to the exporter, and sometimes the importer will absorb it and pass it on to the consumer.”
