American whiskey faces global challenge amid trade tensions
The Japanese owner of the whiskey brands Jim Beam and Maker's Mark anticipates some global consumers may boycott its American brands. This is a result of recent decrees by U.S. President Donald Trump introducing tariffs on foreign products.
On Saturday, Trump signed an order introducing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods and a 10 per cent tariff on oil and gas. Canada responded to Trump's tariffs with its own retaliatory measures announced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Saturday night. The package begins with imposing tariffs on U.S. goods worth $30 billion (approximately £24) billion on Tuesday, escalating to roughly $125 (£100) billion within 21 days.
In light of these actions, Canadian provinces have started boycotting American alcohol. Canadian alcohol producers welcomed the decision by several provinces to withdraw American beverages from local liquor stores.
Global boycott of American alcohol?
The Japanese owner of the whisky brands Jim Beam and Maker's Mark expects that some global consumers will boycott its American brands in response to Donald Trump's actions.
The CEO of beverage giant Suntory Holdings, Takeshi Niinami, believes that its American brands will be "less accepted" due to the threat of tariffs and "emotion" of consumers in major markets, including Europe.
"Our plan is less export from the US to other countries like [in] Europe, Mexico and Canada. We have to be more focused on the US to sell American whiskey."
Did Trump start a trade war?
Over the weekend, Trump issued a decree introducing 25 per cent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, and additional 10 per cent tariffs on goods from China. He then stated that he would "absolutely" impose trade restrictions on Europe.
However, on Monday, he announced on the Truth Social platform that the United States had suspended for a month the 25 per cent tariffs on imports from Mexico.
A similar suspension occurred with tariffs on Canadian goods. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, after a conversation with Trump, declared that "proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together."
