Posted on 01/27/2003 12:21:55 PM PST by samkatz
An old friend of mine had a fondness for truly putrid automobiles. First he owned a Renault LeCar, which was inoperable about 75% of the time. At least he had some fun with it, extending the "Le Car" lettering on the doors to read: "Le Carcass".
Right after that Gallic misadventure, he bought a used Renault Fuego. In a fit of delicious irony, it lived up to its name one Spring morning by self-immolating. That was the first car I'd ever seen burn down to the tires.
All your French product are belong to me.
French beer tax has Belgian brewers and monks in uproar
Tue Jan 21,10:31 AM ET
By RAF CASERT, Associated Press Writer
CHIMAY, Belgium - Father Omer lifted his head from the huge vat where his beloved Trappist ale was brewing to address an issue which is vexing producers of Belgium's great beers.
"The French are playing tricks on us," the soft-spoken monk said, before restoring his momentary lapse with a more saintly thought. "But, of course, we still love them."
Seemingly out of the blue, the French government is moving to impose a prohibitive tax on beers with over 8.5 percent of alcohol content, threatening to put many of Belgium's famed specialty brews in serious trouble.
It will cut out their prime export market and jeopardize several microbreweries who have helped forge Belgium's gastronomic image around the world.
"I see nothing good coming from this kind of trade war," said Belgian Foreign Trade Minister Annemie Neyts in an interview Tuesday, arguing France was trying to stop the commercial rise of Belgian specialty beers on its market at the expense of local beverages. "Too bad they have gone down this road."
The Belgian government has already approached the European Union (news - web sites) to check whether the tax complies with EU fair trading rules.
Meanwhile, dozens of pallets with Chimay's flagship blue label, 9 degree brew, stand waiting in storage in the bottling plant outside the abbey to move south into France. Whether many more will make it is questionable now.
"If you see how much French wine we drink, they should make a bigger effort for us," complained Didier Godfroid, who has been bottling Chimay for almost three decades. "And between neighbors no less," he added as he was preparing more shipments of Trappist.
France said the tax plan of adding 2 euros (US$2.1) in taxes per liter of strong beer is an attempt to counter alcoholism, but Neyts sees it as protectionist since France itself does not produce beer that potent.
"Why does the measure only apply to strong beer and not on wine which has a much higher alcohol content and consumption," she asked. "It is a piece of French logic which will need some explaining."
The brewers themselves could take a legal action by the end of the week.
For Father Omer, it is a far cry from the daily ritual of seven prayer sessions which start with Vigils at 4:30 a.m, and are usually only punctuated by religious study and the overseeing of the daily brewing process.
Last week, he traveled to nearby Rochefort to plot a course of action together with his religious brethren at another of the six abbeys in Belgium which are the only ones allowed to produce Trappist brews.
"In the end, we will win the battle," he predicted, his arms tucked in his beige-and-brown cowl.
In the process, some microbrewers surviving on narrow profit margins could be pushed into bankruptcy. Over two dozen brewers across Belgium are directly affected by the tax plan.
"For the small brewers, it is a catastrophe," said Father Omer. Overall, the measure will affect some 50,000 hectoliters of strong beer.
Even Chimay, the biggest exporter of the strong beer, will suffer badly. The consequences of the tax would cost the company some 125,000 euros (US$130,000) a month. "We cannot support this for long," said Bernard Bleus, director general of the brewer .
Also, once the distribution chain stops, even for less than a year, the Belgian brewers will see their beers replaced by other drink. "It would take two to three years to get our market share back," Bleus said.
And apart from the commercial and gastronomic loss, the needy will also suffer.
To become a true Trappist producer, the beer needs to be brewed at the abbey and overseen by monks. A third prerequisite is that a majority of all profits go to good causes.
Father Omer said the consumption of his heady brew profits development projects as far apart as India, Congo and the poor in Belgium's southern Hainault province where the abbey is based.
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