What the WRF Has Accomplished

By the end of 2018, APEC will mark eight years (2011-2018) of sectoral focus on wine, during which the group has realized many of its early goals:

1. Influencing international trade agreements – the United States, Mexico, and Canada Free Trade Agreement, in which the WRF concepts on wine as a low-risk food product and risk-based certificates of analysis were included.

2. To bring transparency to import requirements for wine exporters – the WRF completed 5 compendia outlining wine-related requirements in APEC economies covering the following topics: export certificates, food safety and composition, pesticide MRLs, labeling, and methods of analysis.

3. To provide regulators with examples of best practices to consider when revising regulations – the WRF partnered with FIVS-Abridge to provide access to the database for wine regulators so they can compare and contrast their requirements against other economies when considering regulatory changes.

4. To reduce the number of required export certificates – Following 2011 WRF dialogue on certification, in 2014 the U.S. and China developed a consolidated wine export certificate that has resulted in a significant reduction of unnecessary certificates issued for trade between those economies. Based upon this work, in 2016 the WRF created a consolidated APEC Model Wine Export Certificate. Chile was the first economy to implement this certificate (which also has become a model in the dairy sector).

5. To educate non-producing APEC economies about wine as a unique food product – the WRF brought regulators to wineries and wine testing laboratories in the U.S., New Zealand, Australia and Vietnam. One economy has officially recognized that “wine is a microbiologically low risk food product” and others have become vocal advocates for reduced non-health related testing of wine.

6. To increase the accuracy of testing of wine in regulatory laboratories – the WRF is in the third round of wine ring tests and labs are getting hands-on support to help increase precision and accuracy.

Model Wine Certificate

The APEC Compendium on Export Certification outlines export certification requirements in the region. The APEC Model Wine Export Certificate, approved by regulatory and trade officials from APEC member economies, will consolidate these existing certificate requirements into a single certificate usable across the region. 

The APEC Model Wine Export Certificate and its instructions are available at this link.