Canada ends tariffs on Kentucky Bourbon, called a “Really good first step”

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky bourbon industry leaders are applauding the move by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to roll back several retaliatory tariffs imposed on the U.S. to zero.

But Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, stresses it’s just a first step toward getting bourbon back on Canadian shelves.

“We’re very pleased that leaders in Alberta and Saskatchewan have restored American alcohol, especially Kentucky bourbon, to the shelves, and now we’re just hopeful that other provinces will follow suit,” Gregory told WHAS11 in an interview. “Minister Carney’s announcement is a really good first step because we’ve had a situation where we’ve had unbalanced trade.”

Kentucky distilleries export bourbon to Canada more than any other single country, but over the last few months, much of that product has just been sitting there instead of being sold. There is hope this latest move will mend the wounds of the fractured trade relationship between the U.S. and its neighbors to the north.

“Canada is our biggest export country. We send about $100 million worth of spirits, most of which is bourbon, there every year. So if we can figure out a way to get the negotiations started again, then that’s good for everybody now,” Gregory said.

Gregory believes Canada ending these tariffs opens the door for a new long-term trade deal, which Trump has been wanting from the start in lieu of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) — which went into effect in Trump’s first term.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), who spoke at a luncheon hosted by Greater Louisville, Inc. on Tuesday, made it clear his stance on tariffs and the strain he says it puts on Kentucky’s bourbon industry has not changed.

“It’s worse than just the tariffs. Tariffs would just be adding a cost to Kentucky bourbon. In Canada, they’re just not ordering. They’ve got whole shelves where they’re not serving it,” he told WHAS11 after the luncheon. “There are boxes and boxes of bourbon sitting somewhere that aren’t even being distributed.”

Meanwhile, as domestic bourbon sales dip across Kentucky, with some companies even laying off workers, tourists continue to travel to the state for the bourbon experience.

Rosanne Mastin, communication and public affairs manager with Louisville Tourism, says by year’s end, downtown Louisville will have opened several new distilleries.

“I think [by] last count, we were [at] about 25 by the end of this year of both bourbon visitor experiences and tasting rooms,” she said. “The tariffs aren’t necessarily affecting people who go to the tasting rooms or the distilleries.”

But for those looking to grow internationally to countries like Canada, the images of bottles being taken off shelves stick in the minds. The hope is that those will be restocked sooner rather than later.

“We’re not all the way there yet, because there are still provinces — and it happens to be two of the biggest provinces — that have not yet put us back on the shelves,” said Bob Hausladen, former Brown-Forman executive and program director for the University of Louisville’s distilled spirits business certificate. “What they own that they took off the shelves, they own. They can’t give it back. So they’re going to have to put it back on the shelves eventually. The question is, are they going to hold out for a while? So, maybe they’re trying to put pressure down for that.”