Switzerland’s wine-making president pushes to restrict imports

Guy Parmelin ran a family winery before entering government in 2016. Keystone / Anthony Anex

Effort to boost local producers draws ire from foreign rivals and domestic merchants.

Switzerland is proposing to restrict wine imports under a plan from the country’s president, a trained winemaker with a family vineyard near Lake Geneva.

Guy Parmelin wants to restrict merchants from buying foreign wine unless they also buy or process Swiss grapes, in a move that critics say would deepen protection in a sector long shielded from competition.

“This would amount to a cartel system. It would be terrible,” said Thibaut Briançon, operations director at large Swiss wine importer Cave. “How can we complain about Trump’s tariffs last year on our watches and chocolate if we are ready to do the same thing with wine?”

Parmelin ran a family winery before entering government in 2016. The business still produces wines in the Vaud region, where the light white Chasselas grapevines stretch along the shores of Lake Geneva.

The president, whose right-wing Swiss People’s Party draws support from farmers, retains close ties to a sector that forms an important part of his political base.

The change is primarily being demanded by winegrowers and wine organisations in canton Vaud, as well as in cantons Geneva and Valais.

The proposal is being led by Parmelin’s department but would require approval from the full seven-member executive branch, known as the Federal Council. If successful it could be implemented via federal ordinance — a form of executive regulation — without a parliamentary vote.

Switzerland already limits wine imports through a tariff quota — allowing a fixed volume to enter at low duty — but the new plan would reserve access to it for companies that buy or process Swiss grapes.

The proposal would not restrict volumes but change how the quota is allocated, shifting from a first-come, first-served model to one based on “domestic performance”.

The measure, unveiled this month, is under consultation until June, with a decision expected later this year and implementation planned from 2027.

Switzerland imported about 161 million litres of wine in 2024, mainly from Italy, France and Spain, while about 1% of Swiss wine is exported — far below levels in other producing countries.

EU winemakers have attacked the move. “Protectionism is not the solution,” said Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, secretary-general of the European Committee of Wine Companies. “We want strong local wine cultures but we also want a level playing field.”

The plan would mark a return to a system abandoned in 2001, when Switzerland liberalised its wine market by scrapping rules that tied import rights to domestic sales — a shift that many say pushed producers to improve quality and compete.

Esther Herranz García, a Spanish MEP who chairs the European parliament’s Wine Intergroup, said, “what Swiss producers’ associations should be considering is how to improve their product, how to promote it more effectively”.

Norbert Lins, a German centre-right MEP and member of the European parliament’s agriculture committee, said he understood the Swiss government’s desire to support its wine sector, but added “any mechanism that ties import rights very directly to the purchase of domestic production always raises questions about market access and potential discrimination against foreign suppliers”.

Edouard Parinet, managing director of Château du Moulin-à-Vent, a French estate in Beaujolais, described the move as “narrow-minded”, and said it would ‘‘certainly’’ affect his business. Economists have also raised concerns. Zurich think-tank Avenir Suisse said the policy would entrench protectionist tendencies.

The government’s own consultation document acknowledges the proposal could distort competition, favour domestic producers and risk trade tensions — while doing little to address the broader decline in demand.

“It is generally expected that implementation would lead to greater shelf availability of Swiss wines and, consequently, to an increase in sales figures,” the federal economic affairs department said, while acknowledging the changes could lead to higher prices for some wines.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2026