SPRING 2020 27
Fancy Food Show Booth #1037
What about other products
impacted by the tariffs, such
as meats and cheeses?
It's imported the same way. Importers will have
to put out more capital, and the economics that
people have spent lifetimes building will shift. They
will be impacted, and again, the consumer will be
impacted by higher prices.
How do you see the tariffs impacting
the European producers?
For the most part, producers in Europe have other
markets. We are going to lose out, because they are
going to sell to places like China, which is a huge
market right now, or other EU countries.
Then, are we going to get that back? Do they
want to start a relationship again with us if tariffs
might go up again in another five years? Part of
what this industry is built on for importation and
distribution is relationships. If you lose those
relationships, you lose your business, and I don't
know how you get those back, other than build
them up, painstakingly, again, over many years.
Jill Weber, owner of
Jet Wine Bar, Rex 1516, and
Cafe Ynez, on Tariff Impact
How do you expect the latest tariffs
to impact your restaurants?
The tariffs have not impacted our business so far
because the importers have eaten a lot of the costs.
The costs have not made it as far as the restaurant
industry and the consumer yet. But obviously,
when these tariffs go higher, then these companies
can't do that anymore.
Certainly, a lot of jobs will be lost because
the added cost of bringing wine into the country
will require greater capital at the start, and a lot of
businesses won't have that capital to pay initially.
So, we will start to see fewer importers and
distributors, and we will start to see fewer wines,
and there will be a snowball effect, with lost jobs,
lost choices, lost everything, basically. We'll end up
with a couple of wines on our shelves, and they will
all be very expensive.
PHOTO: LEXY PIERCE, PUNCH MEDIA
