President Trump threatened a 200% tariff on wine and liquor from countries part of the European Union.

However, the local businesses many of you shop at could be the most affected by this tariff.

“People who are looking for the French wine or the German wine and if they don’t find it, they may move onto something else and may not come back to those wines again,” Sundeep Patel said.

Patel is the store manager at New York Wine and Liquor Warehouse. He said about one-third of their alcohol is from European countries.

“I wish I had a looking glass to look through to see what’s going to happen, but one thing is certain, the rates are going to go up.”

President Trump’s tariff threat is the latest twist of an escalating trade war. The threat is a response to the EU’s plans for a 50% tax on imports of American-produced whiskey as part of a retaliation to Trump’s tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports.

“Unfortunately, we joke that things used to happen yearly and monthly and now it’s not even daily. It’s by the minute,” Mark O’Callaghan said.

O’Callaghan, a Clifton Park liquor store owner, is lobbying down in the nation’s capital with other members of the alcohol industry when he heard the new tariff news.

“Part of our lobbying has been trying to get part of the administration to take beverage alcohol out of these tariffs.”

O’Callaghan and Patel both said some alcohols have to come from other countries.

“You can’t make tequila in California. It has to come from Mexico. Champagne has to come from Champagne. Cognac has to come from the Cognac region of France,” O’Callaghan said.

“The definition of champagne means it has to come from France,” Patel said. “There’s a lot of prosecco that come from Italy.”

If the tariff is imposed Patel said he would have to look for more domestic wines to fill the racks.