In 2025, Us duties “average” for the value of imported Italian wine was 8.8%

2025 has been a year marked by major changes for the world of wine, and there is no doubt that some of them have been decisive. What has had the greatest impact on Italian wine, without overlooking the trend of declining consumption, has been the application of tariffs by the United States, a measure introduced by president Donald Trump which has effectively “set the pace” for exports (while awaiting clarity on how the refund issue will be resolved after the tariffs linked to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act - Ieepa - were declared unlawful by the U.S. Supreme Court last February). This began with a rush to purchase by the U.S. market (which was and remains by far Italy leading trading partner) in the first months of 2025 in an effort to “get ahead of” the tariffs that would shortly come into force at 10% starting on April 7th, later rising to 15% from August 8th.
A “roller-coaster” scenario for European wine, and for Italy, France, and Spain in particular, the three main wine-producing powers, experienced with a constant sense of uncertainty, a “sentiment” that, when it spreads, slows the market and therefore purchasing activity. But how much impact did the tariffs really have? An analysis by the American Association of Wine Economists (Aawe), based on data from the U.S. Bureau of the Census - USA Trade Online, calculated as a percentage of import value and reported by WineNews, helps clarify the issue by establishing an “average”.
As far as Italian wine is concerned, the effective tariff rate for 2025, based on the wine imported, stood at 8.8%, a figure resulting from the average of the different rates imposed over the course of the year. This included the “standard” rate of about 6.3 U.S. cents per liter for most still wines, in force from January through April 4th, 2025, to which a 10% tariff was added from April 5th to August 7th, and then increased to 15% from August 8th onward. This trend had a tangible impact, considering that in 2025 Italian wine exports to the U.S., according to Istat data analyzed by WineNews, reached 1.75 billion euros in value (-9.1% compared to 2024) and 339.5 million liters in volume (-6.2% compared to 2024).
A lower incidence, corresponding to 7.4%, was recorded in France, the world leading wine power, where exports to the United States in 2025 totaled nearly 1.9 billion euros, 17.9% of the total, with a significant -19% drop compared to 2024 and volumes falling to 1.6 million hectoliters.
For Spain, on the other hand, the effective tariff rate in 2025 stood at 9.3%, thus carrying more weight than in Italy and France. The United States, which is Spain second-largest destination for domestic wine, imported 210.8 million euros worth in 2025 (-14.8% compared to 2024), another double-digit decline.
It is therefore clear that the correlation between imposed tariffs and the decline in exports is very real and continues to be a source of concern in the current year as well. The U.S. tariff measures were not uniform in their impact internationally, but they affected all major wine-producing countries in 2025: Australia faced an average tariff of 5.5%, New Zealand 9.4%, Argentina 7.3%, Chile 5.5%, Portugal 9.4%, and Germany 9.3%.