Canada’s provincial bans on U.S. booze led to a 63 per cent decline in U.S. alcohol exports to Canada last year, an industry body told the Trump administration on Wednesday, adding that the “trade friction” is causing job losses in the industry.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs have prompted retaliatory action, particularly from the European Union and Canada, which has hurt the U.S. alcohol industry, said Chris Swonger, president and CEO of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.
“Even the threat of tariffs creates uncertainty, negatively impacting exports,” Swonger told the Section 301 Committee, an interagency body under the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).
Currently, all but two provinces — Alberta and Saskatchewan — have bans on the sale of U.S. booze. That has hurt U.S. alcohol exports to Canada, which declined by 63 per cent in 2025, Swonger said.
The “ongoing trade frictions” have meant that U.S. distilleries lost 3.5 per cent of their workforce, nearly 1,000 jobs, from September 2024 to September 2025, Swonger told the committee.
Get breaking National news
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won’t miss a trending story.
Speaking to reporters last month, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the U.S. side had expressed concern over “provincial actions, with respect to alcohol on the shelves.”
These are “trade irritants” for the American side as negotiations in the renewal of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (CUSMA) near.
Following Trump’s announcement of tariffs on Canada, several Canadian provinces decided to pull millions of dollars of U.S.-made alcohol off their shelves.
The U.S. government is taking note of Canada’s booze bans. In a report on foreign trade barriers released last month, the U.S. Trade Representative said the provincial bans were raising “serious concerns” in the Trump administration.
The administration will continue to “press Canada” to remove these bans as CUSMA talks shape up, the USTR report said.
In a social media post last month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford doubled down on his ban on American booze.
“I want to be clear: American alcohol will only go back on shelves when the U.S. removes its tariffs,” he said.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
