WHO Proposes Higher Taxes on Alcohol, Dredging up Legislative Debate Among Winemakers
The logo and building of the World Health Organization (WHO) headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, April 15, 2020. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, file)
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a manual urging governments to raise taxes on alcohol and sugary drinks. It’s the latest in a long line of sobering recommendations that WHO has proposed over the past year, ruffling feathers among distillers long exempt from oversight.
“Taxing unhealthy products creates healthier populations. It has a positive ripple effect across society – less disease and debilitation and revenue for governments to provide public services. In the case of alcohol, taxes also help prevent violence and road traffic injuries,” said Dr Rűdiger Krech, Director of Health Promotion at the World Health Organization.
According to WHO, a tax that increased alcohol prices by 50% would generate nearly $17 trillion annually — “equivalent to the total government revenue of eight of the world’s largest economies in one year.” Though WHO stopped short of recommending a specific number, tax rates mentioned within the manual hovered around 17% to 26%.
Crucially, WHO also recommends that these taxes be levied on wine.
In order to keep their products competitive, many of the world’s largest wine-producing countries (particularly those in Europe) have long resisted wine taxes. Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany currently levy no taxes on domestic wine, while France levies the lowest recorded in the world at just $0.03 per bottle.
In the unlikely scenario that WHO’s tax proposal was approved worldwide, it would deal a massive blow to Europe’s $147 billion wine market.
WHO’s efforts to redefine wine as a potentially harmful alcohol — rather than a culinary or cultural export — have long put it at odds with the industry’s biggest advocates. In January, WHO controversially asserted that “no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health,” taking particular grievance with myths surrounding the Mediterranean diet and the purported benefits of drinking one to two glasses of red wine a day.
“We are under attack from fundamentalists — people with ideology,” recently remarked ViniPortugal President Frederico Falcão at the Lifestyle, Diet, Wine & Health conference in Spain. “We need these kinds of events to know the facts and use these facts to defend ourselves from the people that attack us without any scientific knowledge.”
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