World Wine Trade Group (WWTG) participants welcomed the signing of their Agreement on the Requirements for Wine Labelling in Canberra, Australia on 23 January.

This far-reaching Agreement will enable wine exporters to sell wine into WWTG markets without having to redesign their labels for each individual market. It allows the placement of four items of mandatory information (country of origin, product name, net contents and alcohol content) anywhere on a wine bottle label provided they are presented in a single field of vision.

The Agreement will help reduce costs relating to the production, application and warehousing of labels. Since the inception of the WWTG in 1998, the Group’s global market share of wine exports has risen over 70 per cent to almost a quarter of global exports in 2005. Savings achieved by this Agreement will provide a competitive advantage and opportunities for further export growth to WWTG participants.

The Agreement also brings benefits to consumers who will be able to easily locate important items of information on the bottle in a single field of vision, allowing them better to compare between wines and brands.

This is the second treaty signed by the World Wine Trade Group. In 2001 the Group signed the Mutual Acceptance Agreement on Oenological Practices which provided WWTG exporters with assured access to markets without the costs and frustrations of barriers to trade based on differences in oenological practices.

At its meeting in Canberra on 22-24 January 2007, the Group agreed to continue to facilitate trade between participating countries and build markets for wine exports globally, including through pursuing further wine labelling arrangements between participants.

Canberra, Australia
24 January 2007

The WWTG is an informal group of government and industry representatives from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, New Zealand, South Africa and USA.

The Agreement is available in English, French and Spanish. The U.S. Government is the repository for the Agreement which can be found on the following website: http://www.ita.doc.gov/td/ocg/wwtg.htm

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