Ontario winery owners say they will face increased
competition from Europe because of the Canada-EU trade agreement.
The issue is the Liquor Control Board of Ontario monopoly on
marketing spirits and wines, and the way it marks up prices.
The Europeans won the argument that the most expensive wines
– eg. $200 per bottle – face too high a markup when it’s done on a six per cent
basis. They argued that it costs no more to bring in a $200 bottle than a $10
bottle.
The Ontario government is apparently trying now to persuade
the federal government to offer compensation, arguing that the same principle
applied to help cheese makers ought to apply to wine.
It’s still not clear how, or how much, compensation to the
federal government will provide cheese makers.
Trade Minister Ed Fast has argued that specialty cheese
sales have been increasing steadily and those increases will, over a span of a
few years, equal the 16,000-tonne increase Europe has been granted for cheese
to enter without tariffs applied.
In other words, Fast argues that there will be no loss of
sales for Canadian cheese makers.
On the wine issue, only Ontario is affected. Other provinces
have different setups for marketing spirits and wines.
