Article on Canadian interprovincial wine shipping

Here is a fine article for all of us interested in getting these abominable prohibitionist restrictions replaced by a fairer system:

Borderless Bootlegging: The Canadian Wine Shipping Quagmire

Great post Paul B. A fairer system? Don`t think I will be around to see that!

Interesting.

While demonization of wine is making great progress over here, we do not have any legal barriers to imports between EU states other than cost.

For mail order VAT and duties are payable in the supplying country except where the supplier's export turnover, like Millesima's probably, exceeds a certain threshold. Sweden and Finland are exceptions because of local retail monopolies, I think, and I believe that UK Customs and Excise also makes difficulties until UK taxes and duties are paid.

For personal imports by returning travellers, there is an EU agreed tolerance of 90 litres per person of imported table wines tax and duty paid in the supplying country and more if one can PROVE that it is for personal consumption. Many countries are now trying to whittle this down in practice, led by the UK where excise duties are high, and I have even heard that France is imposing restrictions (I can't imaging why because their wine industry stands to lose from retaliation!).

Whenever I return from France, Germany, Italy, etc., my car boot (sorry trunk) is full of wine. The main benefit is not so much tax and duty saving as meeting the growers in situ, tasting their full range, choice and cellar door prices.

I guess that, in Canada and the USA, imports by car are in practice unrestricted because of lack of border controls between states.

You know, Bob and Tim, what we need here in Canada is a saner, fairer system for the times in which we live. The howls surrounding "demon liquor" belong in the past. Our country has seen a quality-oriented wine industry grow up in the last two decades: it's time to change the legal landscape to reflect this new reality.

I think that there is no reason to keep the current situation afloat when rational, intelligent people could sit down and work something better out. The problem is that certain parties have benefitted from the silliness and are probably afraid of seeing their monopolies challenged. There are no moral arguments to be made from keeping interprovincial barriers to wine movements on the books: it's all a smokescreen.

Tim writes....I guess that, in Canada and the USA, imports by car are in practice unrestricted because of lack of border controls between states.



Yup, that is so here in Canada but not sure if it is legal in certain parts of the USA?

Well, I don't know Bob ... my understanding is that technically, one is not even allowed to be in posession of a bottle of wine purchased directly from out of province - meaning that you can't take it across a provincial border without risking seizure!

Now, if that is not primitive and arcane, and just plain anti-democractic, then I don't know what is.

If governments are concerned with losing tax revenues, there should be a per-person limit to have with you, or maybe no limit, but some way for the purchaser/consumer to pay provincial sales tax to his or her province of residence ... Geez, there are so many ways that intelligent adults could handle this situation, rather than through the obnoxiously paternalistic and falsely moralistic, outdated puritanical way as we have now.

Really, the one way to solve this would be to have the FEDERAL government regulate alcohol, rather than the provinces - and then to abolish forever the restrictions on interprovincial movements of Canadian-produced wines, beers, etc.

In Australia, interstate barriers are illegal - for alcohol as well. We need to follow suit in North America.