Wines & Vines reported December 18, 2015 that Congress passed an omnibus appropriations bill that, among other things, repealed a Country of Origin Labeling requirement for beef and pork entering the US, that had been strongly contested by Canada and Mexico. The issue was so contentious that Canada had threatened to retaliate against American suppliers of goods if the law was not repealed, which would have meant substantially increased taxes on American wines entering those countries. You can find the whole article at: http://www.winesandvines.com/template.cfm?section=news&content=162490
In our own experience, we’ve found Canada to be a very difficult market to get our clients’ wines into. Not only is DTC shipping to Canada entirely off limits, but American wineries exporting to Canada have a number of hoops to jump through in order to get their wines into the Canadian marketplace, and must be very careful in following the laws. US wineries need to find a trustworthy distributor to place their wines into the mostly state-controlled system, and prices for US wines are typically 25-50% over stateside retail. If you’re looking at exporting to Canada or you need help tackling the compliance for your export orders, please contact us.
