Duty

duty is levied on wine importation and movement into circulation from bond in many countries at an extremely variable level. In general, countries in which viticulture is an economically (and therefore politically) important activity, such as France and Italy, tend to have extremely low duties on wine, while countries, such as the UK, which produce little or no wine, and/or those with restrictive policies on the sale of alcoholic drinks, such as Norway, tend to have high duties. Wine duty may be a flat rate per litre, as in the UK, or calculated ad valorem as in China and much of Asia. In Hong Kong customs officials used to be issued with a set of current prices for all commonly encountered wines.