The third-most populous province in Canada discriminates unfairly against U.S. wine, said the Trump administration in asking the World Trade Organization to rule on retail wine sales in British Columbia. The issue of wine sales in grocery stores has been raised in negotiations over the new NAFTA as well.
U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said British Columbia was “unfairly keeping U.S. wine off of grocery store shelves and that is unacceptable.” The province allows locally grown wines to be sold throughout grocery stores but mandates a “store within a store” with its own cash registers for sale of imported wine as well as local wine. The United States held consultations with Canada last year without success over the 2015 regulation. The U.S. request for a WTO dispute settlement panel is the second step in the WTO process for resolving trade disputes; the process can take a year or more for a decision, which can be appealed.
The trade representative’s office says a number of grocery stores are selling provincial wine under the “wine on shelf” option. “However, we are not aware of any grocery stores selling wine pursuant to the more costly ‘wine within a store’ option.”