(BFM Stock Exchange) – The courses of the two groups of spirits experienced a little boost after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean -Noël Barrot, spoke of a postponement of three months by China of additional customs of customs on the Cognac sector.

In reverse of a CAC 40 in small shape (-1% around 4:30 p.m.), the spirits of spirits are progressing clearly this Friday, March 28.

Rémy Cointreau wins 4% and Pernod Ricard advances 3.8% at the end of the session. The actions of the two companies benefited from a little boost in the afternoon.

The two titles climbed quite clearly after the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, spoke about customs duties on European brandies, envisaged by China.

The Minister spoke of a three -month postponement of the possible application of these customs surcharges. “The risk that the sector faced, until yesterday was the final application after the survey period, which was to end on April 5,” said Jean-Noël Barrot, quoted by AFP.

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A first step

“At the end of this visit, it is confirmed to me that the investigation is postponed by three months. This dismisses the scenario of a brutal application of final law on this sector,” he added. Referring to “a stay”, the chief of French diplomacy, however, considered that it was “a first step” which could lead to the end of this commercial dispute.

In January 2024, the MOFCOM, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, had opened an investigation into European brandies, such as Cognac and Armagnac. In October, MOFCOM then asked importers to deposit a deposit with Chinese customs from October 11, 2024. This deposit will be debited if China actually decides to apply customs surcharges on these products.

Analyst at Oddo BHF, Pierre Tegner had indicated last year that Cognac in China represented around 25% of income from Rémy Cointreau and 8% at 9% of those of Pernod Ricard. “The global cognac market represents $ 50 billion, including 20% ​​in China in volume and 23% in value. If China decided to implement pricing barriers, the potential of geography would be heavily penalized,” said Sarah Thiron of TP ICAP Midcap.

Threat of trump

Besides China, groups of spirits face a second front on the other side of the Atlantic. President Donald Trump threatened in mid-March to establish 200% customs duties on “wines, champagnes and other alcoholic products from France and other countries represented by the European Union”.

“The risks linked to customs tariffs on the part of the United States and China will continue to darken the visibility of the results of the spirits of spirits,” said UBS in a note in early March.

As of last October, Oddo BHF had identified the sector among the major “losers” of a victory by Donald Trump in the American presidential election, and in particular Rémy Cointreau, the company giving off 30% of its operating profit via the sale of cognac in the United States, noted the design office.

The Trump administration, during the Republican’s first mandate (2017-2021), had set up a tax on imports of wines, cognac and Scottish whiskeys of around 25% from 2019/2020 which had been suspended by its Democratic successor Joe Biden. “If these 25% additional customs duties had passed directly to the consumer, this would represent approximately 10 years of price increase in the American cognac market,” said Oddo BHF.

During the last season of results, the companies themselves had prepared the spirits for negative repercussions on their accounts.

Diageo had purely and simply withdrawn its medium -term objectives in early February, due to “macroeconomic and geopolitical uncertainties in several of our recovery countries”.

Pernod Ricard had warned that the exercise 2025-2026 would be a “transition exercise” in “function of the amplitude of the potential increases in customs prices”. “In a context without preceding trade tensions, we focus on the protection as much as possible of our organic operational margin,” warned society.