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Lodi winemakers nervous about threat of Chinese tariff

Phillips says he sells about 3,000 cases of wine to China each year or about five-percent of his exports

Lodi winemaker Dave Phillips says he learned in school that tariffs are never a good thing.

"I studied economics at UC Davis. I came away from that 30 years ago. I learned from my professors tariffs never work," said Phillips.

Phillips is co-founder of Michael David Winery in Lodi.

He believes the threat of a 15 percent tariff by China on U.S. wine, fruit and nuts means Chinese consumers will look elsewhere to other countries to buy the imported red wine they love.

“Australia, Chile, Argentina all have free trade agreements for wine in China. So, we’re already coming from behind fighting, fighting against our competitor that can bring wine at much lower price points," said Phillips.

Phillips says he sells about 3,000 cases of wine to China each year or about five-percent of his exports. He's been doing so for 10 years, making several trips to Mainland China and Hong Kong to broker deals for his "big, bold and heavy red" wine.

"The potential for China is just huge for Lodi, Lodi wine, Lodi fruit, nuts, cherries everything," said Phillips.

"Our competition, the other countries, Spain, France, Italy, etc. all those companies that are producing wine are not going to have the same barriers that we're going to have," said Bruce Blodgett with the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation.

Follow the conversation with Kurt Rivera on Facebook.

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