{"id":156038,"date":"2026-08-05T01:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/156038\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T01:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T01:21:14","slug":"u-s-alcohol-industry-rightly-fears-a-nasty-hangover-from-trumps-trade-war-with-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/156038\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. alcohol industry rightly fears a nasty hangover from Trump\u2019s trade war with Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

An LCBO employee removes American whiskey from the shelves in Toronto in 2025. U.S. President Donald Trump threated to impose new tariffs on Canadian alcoholic beverages and other products starting on Aug. 19.Laura Proctor\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The U.S. alcohol industry is understandably fed up with being a pawn in President Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s trade war with Canada.<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump claims to be defending American interests by threatening to impose new tariffs<\/a> on Canadian alcoholic beverages and other products starting on Aug. 19. <\/p>\n

But many U.S. wine, beer and spirit producers don\u2019t want this kind of help. They are warning him that his latest attempt to strong-arm Ottawa in trade talks will also inflict more damage on them.<\/p>\n

Decisions to lift U.S. alcohol bans should be part of broader deal, Carney says<\/a><\/p>\n

An American industry group, calling itself the Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition, argues that legislators should instead be focused on restoring open markets with Canada and providing certainty for U.S. businesses that rely on cross-border trade. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe latest announcement underscores a troubling reality: The beverage alcohol and hospitality sectors continue to be caught in the middle of trade conflicts it did not create,\u201d the coalition states in a press release<\/a> issued in response to the presidential proclamation<\/a> of the impending tariffs. <\/p>\n

The 50-per-cent tariffs will be invoked under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930. <\/p>\n

Also known as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, the protectionist trade legislation was intended to give Washington a means to settle the score with countries that unfairly impose tariffs on U.S. products. Instead, Mr. Trump is using it to menace an already-wronged trading partner. <\/p>\n

In addition to alcohol, the recently announced U.S. duties will apply to a range of other Canadian exports, including hockey sticks and cement, regardless of their standing under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade. <\/p>\n

U.S. alcohol producers, however, are already feeling acute pain.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor more than a year now, American wine and spirits exporters have faced major losses in Canada after U.S. products were removed from retail shelves across the country, cutting off access to one of our most important export markets,\u201d the coalition added in its release.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on Monday in Washington.Alex Brandon\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Mr. Trump, though, appears unfazed by the financial pain that his illogical trade policies have inflicted on the U.S. sector.<\/p>\n

Even the U.S. industry acknowledges<\/a> that provincial and territorial boycotts of American alcohol only came to pass because of Mr. Trump\u2019s unprovoked trade war. <\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t have to be this way. Before those bans began in March 2025, Canada had been the top export market for U.S. wine and the second-largest destination for U.S. spirits. <\/p>\n

But, Canadian imports of U.S. alcoholic beverages plummeted by roughly 81 per cent to US$137-million in the 12 months spanning March 2025 to February 2026, compared to the same period the year before, according to the White House. <\/p>\n

The coalition, meanwhile, cites a 78-per-cent drop in U.S. wine exports to Canada<\/a> from 2024 to 2025, resulting in US$357-million in lost export value from that category alone. <\/p>\n

Canada was responsible for more than 80 per cent of total U.S. wine export losses globally, making 2025 \u201cthe most catastrophic single-year trade disruption in the history of U.S. wine exports.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

The coalition has spent months cautioning the Trump administration that its protectionist trade policies risk permanent harm to American brands in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe significant damage to U.S. alcohol brands in Canada caused by this trade dispute will have lasting negative impacts on U.S. producers,\u201d the coalition wrote in a correspondence to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this past April.<\/p>\n

How Canadian alcohol producers are adjusting in light of Trump\u2019s threatened tariffs<\/a><\/p>\n

American producers are rightly worried that an escalating trade war will stunt both the competitiveness and long-term sales of U.S. alcoholic beverages in the Canadian market. <\/p>\n

Most provinces, including Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia, are standing firm on their boycotts. Alberta<\/a> and Saskatchewan<\/a>, meanwhile, are facing new calls to reinstate their bans in light of the pending Section 338 tariffs.<\/p>\n

Additionally, other countries similarly aggrieved by U.S. trade policies, such as Mexico, are eager to find new markets for their alcohol exports<\/a>. <\/p>\n

A wider selection of Mezcal in Ontario? I\u2019m down with that. <\/p>\n

The real danger, of course, is that Canadian consumers are learning to live without their favourite U.S. products. <\/p>\n

Tipplers are finding numerous alternatives for California wine and Kentucky bourbon that don\u2019t require us to swallow our pride. <\/p>\n

As much as Canadians would like to toast American alcohol producers for embracing the spirit of free trade, we can\u2019t. <\/p>\n

Indeed, some of us may never go back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: An LCBO employee removes American whiskey from the shelves in Toronto in 2025.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[17,135],"class_list":["post-156038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-canada","tag-dei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}