Beer removed from alcoholic beverage list

The Ministry of Agriculture, Foods and Forests (MAAP) is to draft a normative act to remove beer from the list of alcoholic drinks, Tudorel Balta, director within the Ministry said. “The Ministry will support the Brewers Association, because beer is no longer considered an alcoholic beverage throughout Europe. The other norms drafted by other ministries will have to take this norm into account,” Balta said. Still, he said freeing the beer from excises did not fall upon MAAP. This is MAAP’s answer for the general manager of the United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (Tuborg), Isaac Sheps, who said the Brewers Association in Romania “is battling the Government to have it regulate this sector according to the EU model.” “Beer must be removed from the list of alcoholic beverages due to excises. Including beer on this list is not justified, because there is no black market in this sector. If the market is freer, it will obviously register a higher growth,” Sheps said. ZF