Canada has responded to President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on the nation, but it has not only issued retaliatory tariffs, it’s also begun pulling U.S.-made products from its shelves, including liquor.
The move away from U.S. liquor started on Tuesday when Trump’s tariffs went into effect. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario announced on its website that it would cease “the purchase of all US products.”
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, ordered the board to halt purchases of U.S. liquor and to remove U.S. manufacturers from its catalog.
“As the exclusive wholesaler, American brands will no longer be available in the LCBO catalog, meaning other retailers, bars, and restaurants in the province will no longer be able to restock U.S. products,” Ford said Tuesday. “This is an enormous hit to the American producers.”
According to Global News, the board is the largest alcohol buyer in the world, meaning U.S. manufacturers could soon feel the heat of losing a top customer.
“The governor of Kentucky said, ‘Don’t touch our bourbon,’ and I said, ‘Governor, that’s the first thing we’re going after,’” Ford told reporters Tuesday. “We’re the largest purchaser of bourbon in the world for Kentucky bourbon manufacturers. They’re done. They’re gone.”
Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown Forman, which manufactures Jack Daniel’s, said that the removal of American booze from Canadian provinces was “worse than tariffs” and that it was a “disproportionate response” to Trump’s actions.
“I mean, that’s worse than a tariff because it’s literally taking your sales away, (and) completely removing our products from the shelves,” Whiting said during a post-earnings call, according to Reuters.
Canadians have started sharing photos and videos of stores across the country that have removed U.S.-made liquor from their inventories and shelves.
The government of New Brunswick even shared on Facebook that it had stopped purchasing U.S. alcohol. It also posted a video that showed an employee reboxing booze from the U.S. section of an Alcool NB Liquor store.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday that Trump had “no justification” for his 25% tariff on nearly all goods from Canada and Mexico. Trump has said they were meant to hold the countries accountable for the flow of fentanyl into the country, but Trudeau says “less than 1% of the fentanyl intercepted at the U.S. border came from Canada.”
He also said his nation plans to impose a 25% tariff on $107 billion of U.S. goods.
As for the booze, the Distilled Spirits Council said on Wednesday that it was “greatly troubled” by the removal of U.S. products from Canadian stores. The council said an estimated 31,000 American jobs could be lost because of the tariffs and trade war.
“These U.S. tariffs on Mexico and Canada will result in great harm to U.S. companies and employees throughout the wine and spirits supply chain, from restaurants, bars, and retail outlets to shippers and importers/exporters of spirits and wine products,” it wrote.