Congress Crashes, Women Win
As mentioned last week, Congress left Washington for six weeks with lots of vital unfinished business, especially in the House where a couple seemingly uncontroversial bills died, hinting at the distinct possibility of a government shutdown at the end of September.
But on the Senate side, two women showed how Washington should work. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) led the powerful Appropriations Committee to adopt budget recommendations for all 12 spending categories. This is the first time in five years that all these measures were adopted on time, and in a truly bipartisan way, and it just goes to show what can happen when women are in charge.
FIVS: The Global View
With DC vacated, now is a good time to look beyond our country to what’s happening globally in the world of wine. Just as WineAmerica monitors the national policy outlook, Paris-based FIVS is essentially like a global version of WineAmerica monitoring the international scene. And right now it’s not looking great.
Bennett Caplan, the Head of Secretariat based in Washington, recently wrote an Expert Editorial for Wine Industry Advisor on “The International Business Climate and Sustainability of the Wine Sector.” The hot topics: Alcohol and Health; Climate Change; and Trade Barriers.
In the realm of alcohol and health, a major shift has occurred from considering moderate alcohol use as a potentially positive aspect of a healthy lifestyle for those who choose to imbibe, to a position where there is no safe level of alcohol consumption in terms of potential health damage in various ways. The World Health Organization (WHO) has emphasized this message, and even developed a sophisticated program to significantly reduce consumption worldwide through higher taxes, advertising bans, and other measures.
Climate change and trade barriers are also major factors affecting the wine industry worldwide, and FIVS is addressing them in a number of ways. As an international federation with 55 member organizations in 25 markets—and accounting for 75% of the global wine trade—FIVS is able to convey the international wine industry’s views to governments around the world and to international intergovernmental organizations.
WineAmerica is a member of FIVS, and very grateful for the work they do to protect and enhance the business climate for wine on a global scale.
