The Distilled Spirits Council of the US (Discus) and SpiritsEurope have echoed each other’s concerns over the European Union’s plan to implement a 50% tariff on imports of American whiskey.
The two trade associations independently released statements in response to the news today (12 March) that the EU will reintroduce the tariffs, which have been suspended for the last three years. Should current plans go ahead, American whiskey will be the subject of a 50% import tariff into EU markets from 1 April.
The EU announcement is in retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s move to bring back tariffs on steel and aluminium imports, upon which he previously imposed levies of 25% and 10% respectively during his first term in 2018. His latest move has been to lift the aluminium tariff to 25% as well.
Discus CEO Chris Swonger said that the news is “deeply disappointing and will severely undercut the successful efforts to rebuild US spirits exports in EU countries”.
According to Swonger, the US and EU spirits sectors thrived during zero-for-zero tariffs between 1997 and 2018, noting that transatlantic trade in spirits “increased by nearly 450% during this time”.
He added: “Reimposing these debilitating tariffs at a time when the spirits industry continues to face a slowdown in (the) US marketplace will further curtail growth and negatively impact distillers and farmers in states across the country.
“We urge the US and EU governments to come to a resolution that gets our spirits industry back to zero-for-zero tariffs. This is a model that has allowed spirits exports between the US and EU to flourish and is in line with President Trump’s vision for fair and reciprocal trade.”
Meanwhile, SpiritsEurope trade & economic affairs director Pauline Bastidon stated: “Yet again, spirit drinks have become collateral damage in an unrelated trade dispute. As highlighted in our numerous engagements with the European Commission over the last seven years, we fail to understand how this will help with the broader, unrelated dispute on steel and aluminium.”
Earlier this month, Discus praised the decision to postpone the threatened tariffs on imported products from Canada and Mexico.
