Leaked document of EU-Canada trade agreement could affect B.C. only wine stores

WATCH ABOVE: As part of a new trade deal, the European Union wants an even playing field with local wine producers. It essentially caps the number of stores that sell Canadian products exclusively. Leigh Kjekstad reports.

VANCOUVER – A new EU- Canada trade agreement could be sour grapes for local wine connoisseurs.

The leaked documents reveal the feds have signed a deal that limits the number of B.C. only wine stores in our province.

Under the new deal with our overseas partners only sixty liquor stores that exclusively sell B.C. wine would be allowed to operate here.

But it isn’t all negative right now.

There are currently 21 B.C. only wine stores in the province so there is still plenty of room for growth.

Private liquor stores or wine stores that sell both international and local wines will be unaffected.

Pricing of wines is regulated by the province so it is also not likely that prices will go up due to this new deal.

“B.C. does allow certain stores to sell only local wines,” said Mark Hicken, wine lawyer. “B.C. also provides some preferential treatment in respect to the liquor board mark-up for local products, so the EU, I guess, their position is they would like to try and limit those preferential treatments, which favour B.C. wines over EU wines.”

The federal government is not commenting on the matter and the provincial government said they do not comment on leaked documents.

The deal still needs to be ratified however,  and will likely be a couple of years before it comes into effect.