ARCHIVES & TOOLS
The material previously published on this website has been rearranged in three different sections:
Section I features ‘Earlier Thoughts’ (opinions I aired under the ‘Free Thought’ banner until 2011) and a selection of my Harpers columns (2001). These pieces mostly deal with international wine trade and market imbalances (surpluses).
Section II offers a short note on the related issue of globalisation – with a link to The Economist’s last wine survey.
Section III gives you access to a Companion Bibliography on Wine Economics and a French-English & English-French Dictionary of Wine Economic Expressions.
EARLIER THOUGHTS
The collection of past material featured here offers some background information on the EU’s wine reform, international wine trade and other global market trends.
ON GLOBAL WINE MARKET TRENDS (April 8th, 2011)
and, on the same page:
ON THE EUROPEAN UNION’S WINE REFORM (December 31st, 2007).
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OPENING UP MARKETS AND MINDS (September 7th, 2007).
International Trade (2005 vs 1965) – WTO issues.
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OFF BALANCE (May 18th, 2006).
Consumption – Surplus.
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O-N-E WORLD (June 10th, 2005).
Supply – Demand – Trade (2003 vs 1993).
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Three columns written for Harpers Wine and Spirit Weekly in 2001 have somehow managed to retain some of their currency and could be used as brief introductions to the main issues in international wine trade.
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GLOBALISATION
Thanks to globalisation, and much like individual companies, wine producing regions strive to build a competitive advantage over their rivals. But overnight international success can breed overconfidence, as demonstrated in THE ECONOMIST’s Wine Survey – a compelling piece of research that came 16 years after the magazine aired its concern over massive wine surpluses (‘Overflow – The World’s Wine Trade’, written by Nicholas Faith, Christmas 1983). Plus ça change …
Globalisation, industry consolidation, branding and the clashing views between the Old and the New World, are all dealt with in a most accessible fashion by coffee-cum-chocolate addict Gideon Rachman in a rare, insightful Christmas 1999 survey which The Economist keeps at your fingertips.
To access the 1999 survey’s seven articles online, please go to The Economist’s website and search for ‘wine survey’ (you may be asked to register with an email address to read it). Both surveys should be freely available in their printed version for consultation in your local library anyway.
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An October 2023 blog by the World Trade Organisation’s Secretariat acknowledges the growing reliance of wine producers on foreign markets (over 40% of their wines are exported). It discusses the recent evolution of the various barriers plaguing the international wine trade (whether in the form of tariffs or technical and sanitary measures) as well as the the importance of protecting geographical indications via the implementation of the TRIPS Agreement.
This is the first time that the WTO deals with global wine trade since GATT’s publication of the World Trade Prospects for Ordinary Wine in 1966, at the request of Algeria who faced a halving of its shipments to France between 1964 (the signing of the Evian Agreements) and 1970 (the intended date for the creation of a European-wide ‘common market’ for wine). In 1964, according to GATT, only 10% of the wines produced were traded internationally, nearly half of which were French imports from North African countries – mostly Algeria (a former colony) who had just gained independence.
GATT: General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (WTO’s predecessor)
TRIPS: Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights
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• A Companion Bibliography on Wine Economics – a list of references I used in 2004 when writing the original entries on ‘economics’ and ‘globalisation’ in the third edition of The Oxford Companion to Wine.
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• A WEE Dictionary – a series of French-English and English-French translations of wine-related economic expressions (originally conceived as an aid to economists wading their way through French wine reports and statistics at the University of Adelaide).
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