I'm a Farmer

The current tariff war between France and Germany and the US is now threatening to touch all of our economies across the rest of the wine making regions in Europe. A wine trade alliance has been formed in the US, and they are fighting hard on their end. However it is critical that European wine producers make their voice heard here too.

Knowing first hand the amount of time farmers DON’T like to spend in front of the computer, I have written a letter on behalf of ‘the’ farmer. The letter reflects our own circumstances at Iuli, however, the sentences and phrases that I have bolded simply need to be edited to tell the story of any farmer across any wine making region in Europe.

Please find the email addresses to send this letter to in the "What you can do" section below. Finally, you can download the logo that Gianluca Canizzo has done free of charge for us for the cause!! Please pass on and use as you see fit in all and any social media platform.

Summer Wolff,
Cascina Iuli

What we know

  1. Digital Services Taxes: The U.S. Trade Representative will certainly put tariffs on French products if France does not undo its unilateral Digital Services Tax (DST). USTR may later target other EU countries with unilateral DSTs.

    The DST taxes full revenue rather than profit and was made retroactive, taxing time periods in the past. Both these aspects are against international tax norms. The U.S. is willing to have an international agreement through the OECD to allow taxes on the Digital Services Companies, but does not accept unilateral, retroactive, taxes on gross revenue. Additionally, French and EU politicians calling this tax GAFA - Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon - further convinced U.S. officials that the tax was designed only to affect U.S. businesses, which is also not allowed.
  2. WTO / Airbus Subsidies: The World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled on December 2nd that the EU was continuing to illegally subsidize Airbus. This means the WTO has given the right for the U.S. to receive $7.5 Billion in tariffs on EU goods, until the illegal subsidies are halted. The WTO has ruled against most of the EU claims regarding U.S. subsidies to Boeing, so the penalties on this claim will not resolve the issue. To be clear, this is not a Trump issue, as this case is more than a decade old. Because the WTO has ruled on the matter, most U.S. Congress members believe nothing can happen on tariffs until the EU fully halts their illegal subsidies to Airbus.

    At this point, we have been told the EU has to a degree walked away from the negotiating table. In order to avoid tariffs, we need the entire EU wine trade to write the relevant EU officials on the matter.

What you can do

  1. Download this letter and personalise the sentences marked in bold
  2. Send the letter to the following politicians or call them:
  3. Use one of these images as your Social Media profile.

I'm a Farmer

Use one of the following images as your Social Media profile photo:
I'm a FarmerI'm a Farmer Thank you to the fantastic Gianluca Canizzo of mypostersucks.com for designing our logo free of charge.