Speaking earlier this month following a meeting with President Obama, Chancellor Merkel responded to scepticism about the need for such a deal by referring to the difficulties experienced by smaller German breweries exporting to the US.
Currently, small US brewers exporting to the EU are eligible for a reduced tax rate in the US and the EU, while a European brewer exporting to the US gets no such break.
“Just as small brewers from the US can receive significant discounts when exporting to the EU, our wish is that small brewers from the EU, which export around eight million hectolitres of beer to the US annually, benefit from the same discount in the US as the domestic brewers,” said Pierre-Olivier Bergeron, secretary general of The Brewers of Europe. “With brewers from 26 out of 28 EU countries already exporting to the US and the huge majority of Europe’s 5000 breweries meeting the US small brewer definition (annual production of up to two million US barrels), an agreement would remove a considerable burden imposed on the 250 small European breweries that already export to the US and open the way for other small brewers.”
Source: Brewers of Europe
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