FOR YOUR INFORMATION
We share below a number of recent developments. As always, we rely on FIVS Members to apprise us of noteworthy matters. Please contact the FIVS Secretariat with items that may be of interest.
International Trade
France – Russia: Champagne exports to Russia resume as two countries agree to talks – The French champagne industry lifted a boycott on shipments to Russia on 15 September 2021, three days before France’s agriculture minister announced that the two countries have agreed to talks to resolve their dispute over a new Russian champagne labelling law that grants exclusive rights to the term шампа́нское or shampanskoye for locally-made sparkling wine. Under the Russian regulation, French producers may use the Latin characters of champagne on the main label, but labels on the back must also say “sparkling wine” in Cyrillic characters.
- Russia: New law may affect cognac as well as champagne – The new Russian regulations on champagne reportedly may also affect Cognac and use of its Russian translation (Коньяк or koniak). The cognac association, the BNIC, has noted that new technical regulations by the Eurasian Economic Union, due to come into effect in January 2022, could be superimposed on Russian regulations.
Marketing and Advertising
Namibia: Draft law might ban alcohol advertising – Namibia’s Ministry of Health and Social Services is drafting legislation called, “The Prevention and Treatment of Substance Use,” that would ban the advertisement and promotion of highly addictive and illegal narcotic drugs, including heroin, dagga, and other intoxicating substances, including alcohol beverages. The legislation reportedly may apply to commercially produced alcohol beverages. The bill calls for the establishment a National Drug Control Commission that would require the registration of producers, importers, and retailers of the substances covered by the legislation. An association of commercial alcohol producers, the Self-Regulating Alcohol Industry Forum (Saif), has objected to the government grouping commercially produced alcohol with illegal substances.
International organisations
Global: OIV meetings schedule for October 2021 – An updated schedule of meetings hosted by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV), which will be held from 18 to 22 October 2021, can be found here. The meetings of the OIV’s expert groups and commissions will be held virtually via the multilingual KUDO platform. The FIVS Secretariat will be providing further information in the near future.
Global: Temperance movement’s influence on WHO draft action plan on alcohol – This author asks whether a global alcohol strategy is required, objecting to the WHO draft action plan on alcohol, particularly because it focuses on per capita consumption of alcohol, rather than addressing harmful consumption and problems created by the illicit market. Noting that the WHO Global Non-Communicable Disease Action Plan of 2013 called for reducing harmful use “as appropriate, within the national context” by 10 percent – and that members of the temperance movement, most notably Movendi International, have called on the WHO to reduce per capita consumption by 30 percent by 2030, the author concludes the WHO may have simply split the difference in its current draft action plan, which includes an unattainable goal of reducing per capita consumption by 20 percent by 2030.
Climate change
Europe: Climate change could double frequency of extreme summer droughts – An article, “Hot Spots and Climate Trends of Meteorological Droughts in Europe–Assessing the Percent of Normal Index in a Single-Model Initial-Condition Large Ensemble,” published in Frontiers in Water, indicates that the climate crisis could double the frequency of extreme regional summer droughts in Europe. In the long-term future from 2080 to 2099, European winters and summers reportedly will see greater differences between winter and summer precipitation, increasing during winter and decreasing during summer. The paper identifies four hot spots with strong drought trends: France, the Alps, the Mediterranean, and the Iberian Peninsula.
Alcohol bans
South Africa: Government has ignored advice from its scientists re restrictions on alcohol sales – Alcohol beverge trade associations such as the South African Liquor Brandowners Association (SALBA) have noted concern that the South African government deviated from the advice of the government’s own scientists when it recently eased the country’s COVID restrictions to Level 2 on 12 September 2021, as well as when it imposed a total ban on all alcohol sales in late 2020. A letter from South Africa’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19 (MAC), dated 06 September 2021, to the Minister of Health indicates that the MAC recommended that alcohol sales for off-site consumption be returned “to the usual hours of sale in terms of the Liquor Act” – from Monday through Saturday. Despite the recommendation, the government continued to prohibit sales for off-site consumption on Saturdays and Saturdays and limited hours of operation on Mondays through Fridays from 10 am to 6 pm. In late 2020, the MAC recommended that sales for off-site consumption be limited to Monday through Thursday, but instead the government implemented a total ban on all sales, severely impacting South Africa’s tourism, hospitality, and alcohol beverage industries.
Turkey: Court in western province rules alcohol ban during lockdown was unconstitutional – Turkey’s Interior Ministry banned the sale of alcohol from 29 April to 17 May 2021 during a nationwide lockdown, which was enforced by the police and widely described at the time as an “openly unconstitutional act.” A monopoly shop owner in Çanakkale complied with the ban, but was fined by police who saw lights in her shop when she returned there to retrieve her computer. She appealed the fine, which the Çanakkale Criminal Court of Peace accepted. The judge also reportedly stated that measures taken to combat the pandemic had limited fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by Turkey’s constitution, concluding that the alcohol ban had been unconstitutional. The court decision could hold implications for other government orders, such as one requiring bars that play music to close by midnight due to the pandemic.
NOTE: We make no warranty of any kind regarding the accuracy or completeness of the information in these FIVS Alerts; nor do we necessarily support or agree with views expressed or contained therein.