内容摘要：The OECD's comments come as Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey told a Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday that the global system of trade agreements had been "blown up to a considerable degree" by global trade tensions.

The OECD's comments come as Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey told a Treasury Select Committee on Wednesday that the global system of trade agreements had been "blown up to a considerable degree" by global trade tensions.

Perhaps their representatives will be more forthcoming? I get in my car and drive over to one of her neighbours - François Labet. He is the president of the Burgundy Wine Board, which represents this region's 3,500 winemakers."The US is the largest export market for the whole region. Definitely," he tells me. "They are the biggest in volume and the biggest in value."

And, until Donald Trump's re-election, the US market was booming. While French wines and spirits global exports, sales of Burgundy wines to the US rose sharply.from 2024, to 20.9 million bottles. This was worth €370m ($415m; £312m) in revenues, 26.2% higher than in 2023.

Mr Labet says the US accounted for about a quarter of Burgundy's wine exports last year.Burgundy's reputation abroad is mainly for its red wines, which are made from the celebrated pinot noir grape. Indeed, in the English-speaking world, burgundy is not so much a wine as a colour.

The French word for the same colour is bordeaux; showing they know more about their wine, because while Bordeaux wines are mostly red, two-thirds of Burgundy is actually white.

These are predominantly made from the chardonnay grape. Chablis, one of the best-known examples, is extremely popular in the US.Though a traditional supporter of transatlantic relations, Merz raised eyebrows in February by declaring the current US administration is "indifferent to the fate of Europe".

So far, the White House has been uncharacteristically quiet about Merz's visit.It was only briefly mentioned by Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in a gaggle with reporters on Monday, and not at all during briefings at the White House and State Department on Tuesday.

Sources familiar with the visit suggested several topics that could dominate the conversation.Of these, tariffs would be among the most pressing, particularly after Trump doubled import taxes on steel and aluminium this week, prompting warnings of EU countermeasures.