Prosecco deal a fizzer in historic EU trade agreement
Australia’s wine industry is raising concerns about a new trade deal with the European Union’s tough rules for exporting a popular fizz from local wineries.
Australian Grape and Wine are welcoming the removal of tariffs on Australian wine exports to EU member states in an historic trade agreement signed with the European Union – but raised concerns over producers exporting Prosecco.
After eight years of negotiations, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese this morning confirmed the European Union and Australian Free Trade Agreement would remove challenging tariffs from 98 per cent of Australian exports.
“This deal creates major new opportunities for Australian exporters in the European Union’s massive $30 trillion economy, and will reduce costs for Australian consumers,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
The agreement delivers mainly good news for the state’s embattled wine industry.
Under the agreement, Australian wine exported to the European Union will receive zero tariff treatment upon entry delivering an estimated AUD $14.5 million per year in tariff savings.
Group chief executive Lee McLean said the tariff outcome was a commercially meaningful – Europe remains Australia’s largest export region by volume.
In 2025, 245 Australian wine exporters shipped 76 million litres of wine valued at $143 million to EU member markets.”
“The government has successfully negotiated the retention of the name Prosecco for use in Australia’s domestic market. That provides certainty for a domestic prosecco market worth in the order of $200 million per year.”
However, under the agreement Australian producers will no longer be able to export Australian Prosecco, following a ten-year phase out period.
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“We continue to maintain that Prosecco is a grape variety and that efforts to restrict its use are nothing more than protectionist measures used to distort trade to the advantage of EU producers.
“This is clearly a blow for those Australian producers who currently export Australian Prosecco, who will need to transition away from using that term for export markets.
“Encouragingly, we understand the agreement helps safeguard Australian producers’ ability to use established grape variety names, including those that may face future GI claims – avoiding a repeat of the prolonged uncertainty experienced by Prosecco producers.”
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