October 12, 2003

Regulation

Sometimes you find the free market cause being taken up in the oddest corners. Rocky Mountain News wine critic Jennifer Rosen traces the course of an imported wine and counts the hurdles a new wine importer would have to navigate. Her list:

1. Federal import license, $500, 3 to 5 month wait.

2. Register an office for each state in which the wine is sold, $100 to $350 per state.

3. Find a distributor for each state or even each county. These distributors will add their own markup to the price of your wine. State governments will not allow you to act as your own distributor.

4. Create and print a new English language label for the wine. The label will have to meet the federal requirements for warning labels and such.

5. After shipping, wait ten days for the wine to clear customs.

In Rosen's hypothetical case the bottle of wine that sells in its home country for $4.50 winds in U.S. stores at $15.50 per bottle.

Tax protestors often note that half of the average American's paycheck goes to taxes. When you count the cost of regulation, government's cost is actually much higher.

Posted by Walter at October 12, 2003 10:08 PM
Comments

Yep, it was a bit of reverse sticker shock when I was in Paris on business, able to get quality wines for cheap. Price here is one of the main reasons I don't drink more wine - I don't always feel like plonking down $15-20 for a bottle that will only last a night, when I can spend $13 for a 12-pack of Fat Tire to last me a few days.

Posted by: andy at October 13, 2003 08:36 AM

Jennifer Rosen is the wife of Mike Rosen, the capitalist host on KOA? She's spoken on his program before on wines.

And how can a twelve of Fat Tire last more than 2 days? I don't get it.

Posted by: Fûz at October 13, 2003 07:41 PM

Yeah, Andy, I've seen you drink--that simply isn't true.

Posted by: zombyboy at October 13, 2003 07:53 PM

You're right, Fuz, although Jennifer and Mike recently seperated. He's a partisan Republican, partisan to the point where he takes cheap shots at Libertarians when they threaten Republicans.

Posted by: Walter at October 13, 2003 11:38 PM

On the plus side for U.S. wine makers-- thanks to all that fat, they have an excuse to charge $15.50 a bottle for something that's maybe worth $2.50.

Posted by: Michael Ditto at October 13, 2003 11:59 PM

True, domestic producers don't have as many artificial price barriers as imports. They still have to go through those same distributors. That adds an unnecessary middleman to the market, and in many states the distributor has a monopoly.

Posted by: Walter at October 14, 2003 11:01 AM