Alex Susskind

Associate Professor of Food and Beverage Management

Alex Susskind, professor of food and beverage management at Cornell University’s Nolan School of Hotel Administration says access to European wines is critical to the U.S. restaurant industry and the food and beverage industry, broadly defined. 

Susskind says:

“American consumers enjoy all types of wine from Europe and much of what we import from Europe is not produced in the US. Of course, the U.S. produces wines that are styled after Europe’s, but the comparison is like apples to oranges. 

“Wine consumption is already down, because of changes in preferences among younger consumers, a significant price increase will likely add to that drop in sales. 

“The tariffs in this case seem to be a solution in search of a problem. What is the problem we are trying to solve here?  Given our three-tier distribution system, these tariffs will not only hurt European wine makers. It will affect the U.S. importers, distributors, and retailers. It doesn’t make sense to me.”