Anti-Ireland Wine Coalition?
Ireland is officially the first European country to legislate a health warning label – like those on cigarettes – for alcohol, including wine. How will Brussels move now in the face of the broad EU and non-EU coalition that is instead battling it?
Wine doesn't only create tensions at home between the immunologist Matteo Bassetti and the biologist Antonella Viola, who bicker on social media about how good or bad it is to drink the nectar of the gods.
Ireland, in fact, due to the widespread rate of alcoholism in the country, has been trying for some time to fight against alcohol – including wine – and last January obtained from the European Commission the authorization to apply a label like those of cigarettes with writings such as "alcohol consumption causes liver disease" or "alcohol and fatal tumors are directly linked", the so-called health warnings .
In short, Viola is to Ireland what Bassetti is to the opposing coalition.
Now, however, the front of the opposites is becoming increasingly broad and the issue has reached Geneva, the headquarters of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In the meantime, however, the announcement has come from Dublin that the regulation has been converted into law.
EVEN OUTSIDE THE EU SOME SAY NO TO A CIGARETTE-LIKE LABEL ON WINE
In addition to two of the most important wine producers in Europe such as France and Spain, which had already sided with Italy and 6 other states against the health warnings on wine labels, in the weeks following the notification of the Dublin law the WTO came a shower of negative opinions.
The United States, Cuba and producing countries such as Australia, Chile, New Zealand but also import markets such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and the Dominican Republic have expressed their opposition to Ireland's proposal.
"International partners have expressed their concerns in the context of the WTO notification process, essentially repeating the same perplexities already highlighted in recent months by EU member states", said Mauricio González-Gordon, president of the industry association of wine called Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (Ceev).
“These comments – he added – represent an important and significant signal for Ireland and the European Commission on the critical impact that Irish legislation will have on the EU's single market and on the image of the EU itself”.
WHAT THE EUROPEAN MANUFACTURERS DISPUTE
Returning to the EU, Ceev himself has recently presented a complaint to the EU Commission asking for the launch of an infringement procedure against Ireland for having violated European legislation and the single market.
“The provisions included in the Irish labeling regulations are incompatible with EU law and constitute an unjustified and disproportionate barrier to trade under EU law,” explained González-Gordon. “They will fragment the EU single market by compromising its proper functioning, hindering the access of products from other member states and thus generating clear discrimination against imported products”.
Ceev, as the Italian producers have already observed in recent months, also criticizes the fact that the Irish proposal does not distinguish between abuse and responsible consumption of alcohol, thus not informing consumers correctly.
THE EUROPEAN FRONT ANTI IRELAND
To the complaint of the association were added those of SpiritsEurope, an organization of producers of alcoholic beverages; Brewers of Europe, association of beer producers; the Iberian food industry association Fiab and also European cider producers.
For Italy, Federvini, Federalimentare, Assobirra, the Italian Wine Union and Confagricoltura took part.
“The doubts raised by Italy and by the productive world have therefore found acceptance within the WTO – declared the president of Confagricoltura, Massimiliano Giansanti -. Strategies created to combat alcohol abuse by unjustly penalizing products such as wine and areas where such critical issues do not exist should be prevented from being applied in a broad and generalized way. If anything, the EU Commission should bring the debate back in the direction of contrasting the abuse of alcohol and in favor of education and correct information for the consumer”.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW
Despite such a united and nurtured front, the last word has not been said. The ball therefore passes into the hands of the WTO which will have its say on June 21 through the Technical Barriers to Trade Committee, which could open a dispute resolution mechanism, but also the EU Commission , after months of silence, she is now called to speak and to justify the presumed conformity of the provision.
The Committee will also have to express itself on the principle of double labeling since exporting countries will have to provide Ireland with bottles labeled differently.
Finally, it could also lead to the involvement of the World Health Organization (WHO) to have further opinion.
MEANWHILE, IT IS ALREADY LAW IN IRELAND
In the meantime, the official announcement arrived from Dublin just in the morning. Irish Minister of Health, Stephen Donnelly, has signed into law the regulation that provides for the labeling of alcohol with health warnings . It is the first country in Europe.
The law provides that, in addition to the health warnings, the label indicates the calorie content and grams of alcohol in the product. It will apply after a transitional period of three years and, therefore, from 22 May 2026.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/coalizione-anti-irlanda-sul-vino/ on Mon, 22 May 2023 09:47:21 +0000.