not said anything to that effect<\/a>, however.\n <\/p>\n\n Whisky and liqueurs, two of Canada\u2019s top alcoholic beverage exports to the US, are exempt from the ban when sold in containers larger than four liters. In those cases, they also won\u2019t face any tariffs.\n <\/p>\n
\n But making that switch requires having the right containers on hand or sourcing them from scratch, then rebottling smaller sizes more commonly sold in liquor stores. All that could add to businesses\u2019 costs \u2013 and potentially get tacked on to the prices consumers pay.\n <\/p>\n
\n Crown Royal appears to be especially well-positioned since the company already sends bulk shipments of whisky to the United States, where it bottles all products sold domestically.\n <\/p>\n
\n Beyond bulk exemptions, very few alcoholic beverages shipped from Canada were spared.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cUsing import bans against an ally is unprecedented and a major deviation from US trade policy,\u201d said Inu Manak, a senior fellow focused on trade policy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. \u201cThis is a very symbolic thing to target. It sends a message and is another form of escalation aimed at getting Canadian negotiators back to the table. But Prime Minister Carney is not in a rush to get a deal before the (US) midterms.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Some employees and executives in the alcohol industry expressed dismay about the escalating trade war.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s really unfortunate our industry has gotten pulled into this,\u201d said Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), an industry trade group. \u201cWe American distillers export around the world. We don\u2019t want tariffs applied to our products and we don\u2019t want tariffs applied to our imports. We like to compete by sip and taste, not tariffs.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Swonger described the ban on US alcohol by some Canadian provinces as an \u201cunforced error\u201d and expressed hope the US ban forces a change in policy.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re working hard to get both governments back to the table to get this resolved,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Manak noted that Canadian provinces banned US alcohol only in response to threatened US tariffs.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIn playground parlance, the United Stated started it. That was Canada responding,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n
\n And now US officials are responding to that response, demonstrating how an escalatory tit-for-tat cycle gets out of hand.\n <\/p>\n
\n A manager from a Niagara Falls, New York, liquor store located less than five miles away from the Canadian border told CNN he is confused and concerned about the US ban on Canadian alcohol.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have a lot of Canadian customers and a lot of Canadian liquor. This is not good for business,\u201d said the manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. \u201cPeople have freedom to drink, right?\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n An employee at a Port Huron, Michigan, liquor store near the border with Ontario similarly told CNN that many of his customers buy Canadian whisky including Crown Royal, Black Velvet and Rich and Rare.\n <\/p>\n
\n But the Michigan liquor store employee added that store traffic from Canadians has declined significantly over the past year or so.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe have a lot fewer Canadian customers than we used to,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n
\n To impose the Canadian alcohol ban, Trump is relying on Section 338 of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, the infamous trade law that exacerbated the Great Depression (and that was hilariously featured in the movie \u201cFerris Bueller\u2019s Day Off\u201d).\n <\/p>\n
\n The law allows the president of the United States to impose tariffs of up to 50% or even ban certain imports when another country discriminates against \u201ccommerce of the United States,\u201d according to the statute. But because no president before Trump has used the law this way, courts have not weighed in on what the administration must prove to meet its requirements.\n <\/p>\n
\n In addition to alcohol, Canadian dairy products, such as whey, and motorcycles are also subject to bans, with the Trump administration similarly alleging unfair treatment of American businesses. In total, the bans cover close to $1 billion worth of goods the US imported from Canada last year, according to federal trade data.\n <\/p>\n
\n The partial Canadian ban on US booze has been painful for the American industry.\n <\/p>\n
\n Exports of US spirits to Canada plummeted by 70% after Canadian provinces started removing US wine and spirits from store shelves in March 2025, according to DISCUS.\n <\/p>\n
\n But the Canadian alcohol industry is especially reliant on American consumers.\n <\/p>\n
\n About 93% of Canadian spirits went to the United States in 2025, according to DISCUS.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be absolutely devastating for Canada and Canadian distillers,\u201d said Swonger.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump\u2019s ban on Canadian booze kicked in on Tuesday, an unprecedented move that underscores the breakdown…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-913840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}