Canada’s moves to boycott imported American beers, wines and spirits in response to President Donald Trump’s tariff aggressions is reportedly beginning to take its toll.
Anti-Trump sentiment remains strong in Canada after the natives took exception to the president’s alarming talk earlier this year about annexing their country and making it the 51st state, a mood that ushered in the moderate Mark Carney as its new prime minister in March while right-leaning opposition leader Pierre Poilievre lost his seat.
Canadian stores have since cleared bottles of Jack Daniel’s, Maker’s Mark and Sailor Jerry Spiced Rum from their shelves and replaced them with domestic alternatives like Maverick Distillery’s Barnburner Whisky and Kavi Reserve Coffee Blended Canadian Whisky.
The impact of the snub, a patriotic show of defiance in the face of Trump’s 35 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, is now beginning to be felt, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The newspaper reports that the Distilled Spirits Council estimates that American liquor sales in Canada have plummeted 62 percent year-on-year for the first six months of 2025.
The Liquor Control Board of Ontario, which is responsible for the 688 stores licensed to sell alcohol in the country’s most populous province, is meanwhile reporting zero sales of American goods, representing the obliteration of what was last year a $700 million industry.
Meanwhile, in California, the wineries belonging to the Golden State’s Wine Institute trade group say their products have lost more than $173 million in export value in the first half of this year, no surprise given that Canada was the destination for 35 percent of its exported cases.
“The absence of U.S. wine from Canadian stores is not just a market disruption, it’s a breakdown in a trusted relationship built over decades,” the institute’s CEO Robert Koch told the WSJ.
“This is not just about wine. It’s about farming families, rural jobs and businesses that depend on access to international markets.”
Another California business, Hope Family Wines, said its sales to Canada are down 10 percent since Trump returned to the White House in January.
“It’s definitely going to hurt us personally,” said executive vice president Gretchen Roddick of the president’s trade war.
In Baltimore, Sagamore Spirit’s CEO Robert Cullins said 10 percent of his company’s rye whiskey was shipped north before the president commenced his second term, but no longer, adding that the $2 million loss in sales that represents is “pretty significant” to a small craft distillery.
On the other side of the coin, the boycott has inspired a 14 percent uptick in sales of Canadian liquor in Ontario.
Trump has responded to his trade policy backfiring by griping that America’s neighbor is “mean and nasty to deal with” but Alberta, for one, has moved to reintroduce sales of American brands in June – albeit with a 25 percent retaliatory tariff of its own slapped on for good measure.
Sales of U.S. bourbon and wine have duly rebounded despite that, according to one Calgary store owner, who told the WSJ: “People are scared that maybe they won’t be able to get them again.”
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