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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | January 2006 
Mexico, US Reach Tequila Agreement
 Jenalia Moreno - Houston Chronicle
| | U.S. liquor bottlers took a shot at Mexican tequila and won. |
Tequila trade talks ended on Tuesday with Mexican officials agreeing to allow U.S. distributors and bottlers to continue importing the libation in bulk for bottling later in the United States.
Nearly two years ago, Mexican government officials accused U.S. bottlers of adding lower-cost alcohol and selling the blend as "tequila." They threatened to require that the spirit be bottled in one of the five Mexican states that make up the tequila region. It's in these states of Jalisco, Guanajuato, Nayarit, Michoacan and Tamaulipas where the blue agave plant is cultivated to make the potent drink.
But U.S. groups such as the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States objected to the Mexican government's prohibition, calling it a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
And the regulation would have caused a hangover in the U.S. bottling industry, because 73 percent of the $400 million worth of Mexican tequila imported in 2004 was shipped in bulk form.
"We have resolved this important trade challenge in a way that ensures U.S. bottlers will have continued access to bulk tequila," U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman said after he and Mexican Secretary of Economy Sergio Garcia de Alba signed a tequila agreement on Tuesday in Washington.
The Mexican government issued a release Tuesday saying the agreement guarantees the authenticity of tequila sold in the United States, by creating a registry that identifies approved U.S. bottlers, for example.
Tequila has become popular north of the U.S.-Mexico border with consumers who drink margaritas, those who take shots of tequila chased with lime and salt and those who sip it straight. In 2004, tequila sales volume shot up 8.3 percent, totaling $3.3 billion in retail sales, according to the Distilled Spirits Council, which toasted Tuesday's news.
"The agreement will allow U.S. and Mexican companies to continue to build on the success that tequila has achieved in the U.S. market over the past decade," the council's president, Peter Cressy, said in a written statement. |
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