One year on, it is quite exciting to see the Juncker Commission continue to follow the ‘Jobs & Growth’ agenda. Next up: Agriculture Commissioner Phil Hogan will lead several missions this year to far-flung markets of the world, promoting the very excellent, very refined ‘taste of Europe’. As our distilled spirits are produced from such delightful raw materials as grapes, sugar-cane, molasses, potatoes, cereals, etc. we fully share the ambition of the Commissioner to increase jobs and growth in the sector through trade.
To start to this series of trade missions, Commissioner Hogan will visit Colombia and Mexico from 8-12 February accompanied by spirits sector representatives as part of a group of about 30 European companies/producer organisations. He will follow on with trade missions to Japan and China in April, and to Asia later in the year.
spiritsEUROPE is very happy to participate, combining official visits by Commissioner Hogan to his Colombian and Mexican counterparts, with promotion activities attended by the business delegation such as seminars, business-to-business meetings and media events.
As spirits producers, Mexico is a great market where our exports have increased by almost 70% over the last decade and it is also a large producer, notably of tequila. Colombia will be a more challenging visit, where we will count on Commissioner Hogan to raise the problem of tax discrimination against our products (see more here).
