President Trump’s sluggish trade war is also about to soak American whiskey makers as the rest of America’s industries celebrate the recent lifting of tariffs on wine, vodka and rum.
Major American whiskey brands – from Woodford Reserve to Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark – have been on the rocks over a steep 25 percent tariff on their sales to Europe and the United Kingdom since 2018 – thanks to the Trump-era war on steel and aluminum imports . .
Now, even as the Biden administration works to rebuild US trade relations with Europe and Britain, tariffs on American whiskey doubled to 50 percent from 1 June. Distillers say their sales to whiskey’s major market Europe will be put on ice indefinitely.
Houston’s general manager of Yellow Rose Distilling, Michael Langan, reported that a 50 percent tariff with a $ 30 bottle costing 60 euros in the US would make us so ineligible that I would no longer ship the product to Europe. Post.
Langan said Yellow Rose shipments to Europe fell fivefold in just 1,000 cases last year. If 50 percent of the tariffs kick in, their US exports to Europe would drop to zero, he said, and bouncing back would be harder.
Langan lamented, “American whiskey is losing market share and shelf space in Europe to competitors from Japan and Asia.
According to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, American whiskey exports to Europe were on the rise for the first six months of 2018 before the tariffs came into force. Since then, US whiskey exports have fallen by 37 per cent in Europe and 53 per cent in the UK, the trade group said.
Jack Daniel’s producers are one of the victims of Brown-Forman, which is absorbing additional costs in an effort to not lose market share – a decline in profit margins in the process.
But even a company like Brown-Forman, which makes Woodford Reserve and Finlandia vodka, works hard to swallow the adjacent 50 percent tariff.
“At a tariff rate of 25 percent, we decided to shield our European customers … whenever possible,” Chief Executive Lawson Whiting told POLITICO on March 11, “Everyone can imagine that, of 50 percent At the rate, sudden shielding becomes more difficult. “
Brown-Farman is headquartered in Kentucky, which relies heavily on corn as a typical whiskey. Experts say Kentucky is also the home state of noted Trump’s ally Sen. Mitch McConnell, a big reason for the whiskey industry to be targeted by European trade representatives.
Tariffs on US whiskey are likely to double to 50 percent from 1 June. Distillers say that if this happens, their sales to Europe will be put on ice indefinitely.
Distilled Spirits Council chief executive Chris Swonger told The Post, “The Trump administration adopted a very aggressive posture with the European Union and as a result became very targeted at the European Union for implementing pressure points at the time.” “A lot of whiskey is made in Kentucky.”
It is not just Kentucky, though suffering. There are 37 states exporting whiskey overseas and distillers from Virginia to New York say they are feeling the pain.
Cleveland whiskey has already been thrown in the towel for exporting to Europe as a result of tariffs. Ohio Distillery chief executive Tom Lix received 20 percent of income from exports in 2017, explaining to Tom Lix, “Nobody wanted to put a product on a boat, for which they would have to pay a lot more.”
Owner Tom Potter told The Post that whiskey exports had been the fastest growing segment in New York Distilling Company’s hipster Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The tariff said that the tariff has stunted growth in its tracks and exports, accounting for just 5 percent of total sales.
“We thought it could eventually reach 50 percent of our sales,” said Potter, whose company makes rye whiskey with names such as Mr. Katz and Ragtime Rye. “We don’t know if we can help export our company again.”
The tariff has poured cold water on exports to the Cactoctin Creek Distilling, a Purcellville, Va., Distillery that is internationally sold to Hoot Manhattan’s popular Aster Wine & Spirits.
Catoctin Creek’s whiskeys currently generate several million in sales from Europe, about $ 10,000 million in sales before tariffs. “We predicted that our overseas sales would double by 22 percent in 2018,” Catoctin Creek founder, Scott Harris told The Post. “But now it’s about half a percent.”
The Biden administration caused a setback in Trump’s trade war on aircraft subsidies earlier this month, resulting in a four-month tariff freeze that was emphasizing a significant number of American Bowe buyers and sellers – Europe on American rum A 25 percent tax by the US on wines imported from brandy and vodka and the UK, Spain, Germany and France, including a 25 percent tax.
The Trade Office said the president’s newly confirmed trade representative, Catherine Tai, is now projecting hopes for the whiskey industry, including a March 22 discussion with her European Union and UK counterparts.
But industries have been hurt by the steel and aluminum trade war – a group that also includes tobacco vendors and Harley-Davidson motorbikes – Biden faces pressure from steel makers and their unions to slam as steel unions continue to slam is.
He said Harris of Catoctin Creek popped a bottle of champagne and posted it on Twitter after the plane’s tariff breakdown on March 5, because he initially thought it would help the whiskey industry, he said.
“But then my wife sent me a private message telling me that Reprev was not for us and I had to withdraw our ongoing congratulations on social media,” he said. “We feel unhappy.”
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