Miles Beale, Chief Executive of the Wine and Spirit Trade Association
I am always keen to remind anyone who will listen that the United Kingdom is, by volume, the world’s largest exporter of spirits and the second largest importer of wine.
The Wine and Spirit Trade Association (WSTA) is proud to champion the UK’s vibrant and valuable wine and spirit sector which, in 2022, accounted for £76.3 billion in economic activity, contributed £22 billion in total GVA to the UK economy, and provided jobs to more than 412,000 full-time employees.
In short, we’re an economically significant sector. And yet, over the years, we’ve perhaps been too modest about our contribution, hesitant to tell the story of the very international — and very human — network of businesses behind the hard numbers.
The global wine and spirit trade is not only vital to all our economies, it has a long history of bringing people and communities together. That makes it essential for governments across the world to recognise and value the economic and cultural importance of trade in wine and spirits products. In the UK, the WSTA works hard to highlight the significant contribution of the sector and the importance of our businesses being appropriately and proportionately taxed and regulated. It should not be in the interest of any government to stifle economic growth or hinder the creation of jobs.
As an industry, we have been forced to overcome a decade-long series of significant single-issue challenges: Brexit, COVID, the UK’s review of excise duty and Donald Trump’s tariff policies. The WSTA has worked hard to gain a reputation for excellent advice about the UK market, including imports and exports as these changes have hit businesses.
As 2026 begins, businesses face challenges on a number of fronts, which threaten to further disrupt the trade in wine and spirits at global, regional and national levels. Even where free trade has become something of a dirty word, talk of the end of globalisation is, I believe, exaggerated. The dawn of a new protectionist era represents the end of one particular model of globalisation. A model that set out a liberal utopia in which all barriers — to movement of goods, people and money — are broken down.
“More than ever, we need our politicians to keep wine and spirits out of any tariff wars and avoid being used as negotiating capital to extract concessions elsewhere.”, Jeff Israely
But just because that particular model is out of favour, it would be madness to give up on the very essence of global trade. We still are convinced that the world is a better place when goods and services are exchanged across borders, with wine and spirit businesses serving as a perfect example of why this is so. Instead, what is changing is merely the terms of how international commerce is conducted. As we move towards greater reliance on bilateral trade deals, the landscape is becoming ever more complicated.
More than ever, we need our politicians to keep wine and spirits out of any tariff wars and avoid being used as negotiating capital to extract concessions elsewhere. This brings me to the reason I am penning this piece: Consider it a “call to arms,” to ask all wine and spirit businesses to come together and help drive forward a pro-trade global agenda.
Trade shows matter
I would like to encourage more wine and spirit businesses to get involved in trade shows — because they provide both an opportunity to showcase products, and to shine a light on the most global of trading industries.
It is vital to provide a platform to demonstrate how our industry is constantly innovating and working in unison to overcome hurdles. Coming together in the same location also helps us recognise the new threats on the horizon, and forge new collective approaches to a shifting global trading environment, however hard or painful.
And we should be confident. As Vinexpo has done in Paris and elsewhere, and as the WSTA has done in the UK, we need to face up to a changing world and tackle disruption head on. Together we can, and will, navigate and overcome the prevailing headwinds that buffet the global wine and spirit industry.
I suggest a good place to start is by joining your home country’s trade association and participating in international trade events — especially Wine Paris & Be Spirits in Paris in [February next year]. But then I would say that wouldn’t I? I’ll be there. Come and see me — because we are all in this together.
