CATALINA FOOTHILLS, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tinajas Wine and Beer kept the drinks flowing on Wednesday as they poured for customers. They opened in November and have been in business for almost four months.
However, on Matt Heinz’s mind was President Trump’s tariffs that began at midnight. He’s the owner of the wine and beer spot in the Foothills and has been working on the business for a few years.
“That’s going to make all of these wines from anywhere else much more expensive,” Heinz said about the tariffs.
President Trump is putting a ten percent baseline tariff on all imported goods from all countries except the ones in the U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement. He’s also putting a 20 percent tariff on countries in the European Union and even higher tariffs on many other countries.
“This is going to be something that is going to be passed on eventually to our customers. The wine right here, obviously already purchased, didn’t have the tariffs. But our distributors who are looking at all of this right now are going to have to figure out what they can do,” Heinz said.
About a third of his wines come from the U.S., but the rest are from out of the country ranging from Europe to South America.
While Heinz said he does not want to raise prices on his customers, he also doesn’t have enough space to stockpile domestic wines.
“We just don’t have the volume or the space to hold months and months and months of product.,” he said.
The U.S. Wine Trade Alliance said it strongly opposes the tariffs because the U.S. European Union Wine Trade is already fair.
“The president, the Congress should not be coming in between me and my guests in terms of their wine selection,” Heinz said.
About sixty countries are going to be charged a reciprocal tariff at half the rate they charge the U.S.
A few miles down in the Foothills at his restaurant El Cisne, operator George Ferranti cut vegetables that he got imported from Mexico.
“I don’t think we’re going to see any big, heavy changes within the six months,” Ferranti said.
He said he also imports tequila and vegetables like lemons, avocados, limes, and eggplants.
While he feels like tariffs won’t affect him, he said businesses and distributors in the U.S. he buys from could still raise their prices on him.
“Because I think they’re going to jump on the bandwagon of increasing their revenue and profits,” Ferranti said.
A Democrat from the House of Representatives plans to introduce a vote criticizing the tariffs. Republicans would more than likely try to stop that vote.
Even though he raises his prices yearly, he said he won’t be raising them as a result of the tariffs. He feels like they won’t have an effect on his business much.
“Whatever they need to do to take care of and be competitive in this world economy, I’m a go for it,” he said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
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