In France’s southern wine region,Trump’s tariff threats are already killing business [Video]

Grapevines across southern France’s famed wine region have barely begun to bud, but the season has already turned sour for many of Europe’s top producers.

“We have one [worker] that left … because we couldn’t pay him anymore,” said Nadine Auray, who with her husband, Pierre Jauffret, and a small staff runs Château Terre Forte, outside of Avignon.

“So that’s one guy out of a job and we have to find some other markets.”

Jauffret says U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats are already a disaster for both French producers and American wine consumers. 

“I think he will kill the wine market in the U.S.A.,” said Jauffret.

Trump has threatened Europe’s alcohol producers with a catastrophic 200 per cent tariff as part of a nasty tit-for-tat trade dispute that Trump himself initiated. It began with U.S. action against aluminum and steel, but now includes cars and car parts and wine.