SA signs global wine trade agreement

The Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), Senzeni Zokwana, recently signed the World Wine Trade Group’s (WWTG) protocol to the 2007 World Wine Trade Agreement in Washington DC in the US.

Wanda Augustyn, the manager of media and communication at Vinpro, told Farmer’s Weekly that this agreement contained the requirements for wine labelling with regard to alcohol tolerance, vintage, variety and wine regions.

The WWTG is an informal group of wine-producing countries consisting of Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and the US. Its objective is to facilitate international trade in wine through information sharing, discussion of regulatory issues in wine markets, and joint actions to remove trade barriers.

Parties to the agreement would accept each other’s wine-making practices, and had also agreed on wine labelling and certification processes. Members further agreed to technical cooperation and sharing knowledge on counterfeiting in the industry, Augustyn said.

The protocol would now be submitted to Parliament for ratification before implementation. – Gerhard Uys