Canadian Liquor Exports Face Strict U.S. Ban With Minor Exemptions
Ibtisam Tariq rushed to get his final shipments of cider across the U.S. border before a 50-per-cent tariff on Canadian alcoholic beverages took effect late last month.
The founder of Revel Cider in Guelph, Ont., relies on the U.S. for about 10 per cent of his business. But his importer told him the tariffs made further shipments unfeasible, and orders dried up. He hoped the disruption would be temporary, and that Canada and the U.S. would reach a trade deal.
Then came another blow. On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an order banning imports of a broad range of Canadian alcoholic beverages, including packaged cider.
“That was the cherry on top,” he said. His U.S. business has now completely stopped.
Canada’s alcohol industry is bracing for the sweeping U.S. import bans, which are scheduled to take effect on Sept. 29 and could put the American market further out of reach for smaller producers. But a closer look at the measures shows that some larger spirits companies may now have more options to adapt.
The bans largely target alcohol packaged for consumers, including beer and many types of wine. While there are other banned items, such as motorcycles and dairy, Canadian alcohol products account for 87.6 per cent of all goods set to be banned by dollar value. In 2025, booze from Canada represented US$854-million of imports.
It’s the latest chapter in a trade war that’s often put booze at the forefront. Most provinces moved to keep American booze off their shelves after pulling it in March, 2025, in retaliation for Mr. Trump’s initial round of tariffs.
But a key detail in this latest chapter is how the U.S. is planning to adjust its tariffs on Canadian alcohol imports to bolster its domestic industry. Some alcohol shipped in bulk for packaging in the U.S. can continue to cross the border, and at the same time, the U.S. is removing the 50-per-cent tariff on certain bulk whisky and liqueur shipments.
Trade experts say the distinction could encourage more bottling and other value-added work to take place in the U.S., in keeping with the Trump administration’s broader push to shift economic activity to the United States. That could favour large multinational producers with established cross-border supply chains over smaller Canadian distillers that lack the scale and infrastructure to ship their products in bulk and have them packaged in the U.S.
“The devil is in the details,” said John Boscariol, a partner at law firm McCarthy Tétrault and co-head of its international trade and investment law group. “The U.S. is definitely being more strategic now and more tailored in their tariffs against Canada.”
For some of Canada’s largest spirits producers, shipping alcohol in bulk and bottling it on the other side of the border is already part of how they do business.
Crown Royal, which is owned by British spirits giant Diageo, has its whisky distilled and aged in Canada, but Diageo announced last year that it would close its Amherstburg, Ont., bottling plant and shift some bottling volume closer to its U.S. customers.
The new measures could further encourage that kind of arrangement, Mr. Boscariol said.
As a part of Mr. Trump’s Tuesday order, certain whisky shipments, as well as liqueur and cordial, in containers holding more than four litres are no longer subject to 50-per-cent tariffs. Those bulk categories account for a relatively small share of trade compared with their smaller-container counterparts.
Whisky shipments in containers of four litres or less accounted for roughly US$168-million in trade from Canada in 2025, compared with about US$43-million for whisky in containers larger than four litres, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Liqueurs and cordials in containers of four litres or less accounted for about US$384-million, compared with roughly US$3-million in containers larger than four litres.
Cal Bricker, president and chief executive officer of Spirits Canada, which represents distillers across the country, said moving alcohol across the border in bulk is not new. But he cautioned against viewing that as an escape hatch from the new restrictions.
Nearly half of all Canadian production of spirits is destined for the U.S., he said, and an outright ban leaves many producers with few options.
In 2024-25, Canada exported $1.4-billion worth of alcoholic beverages to the United States, accounting for about 90 per cent of the country’s alcohol exports.
The Canadian spirits sector contributed approximately $5.8-billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024 and supports more than 48,800 full-time equivalent jobs across the country, according to an economic impact report by Spirits Canada.
For nearly a half-century, Moosehead Breweries has sold its beer in the U.S. Now, the New Brunswick brewer is preparing to have its products blocked from a country that consumes 15 per cent of its volume.
The prospect of losing that is “material,” Moosehead chief executive officer Andrew Oland said in an interview Wednesday.
Last year, Canadians bought $9.2-billion worth of beer. Canadian sales to the U.S. amounted to just $28-million. But most of those U.S. exports last year were made by Moosehead.
Still, Moosehead does not expect to move production south, nor to skirt the looming ban by exporting bulk beer for bottling in the U.S., Mr. Oland said.
“Our focus is on brewing the beer here in Saint John. Our consumers want an authentic Canadian beer,” he said.
For smaller producers, the ability to ship alcohol in bulk and have it packaged in the U.S. may exist in theory but can be difficult to make work economically.
Barry Rooke, executive director of industry group Cider Canada, said that while unpackaged bulk shipments appear to fall outside the new bans, those shipments could still be subject to the 50-per-cent tariffs.
Still, if these measures last, it may incentivize Canadian companies to move some production to the U.S.
Mr. Tariq of Revel Cider said that while all the company’s packaging is done in Ontario, if the restrictions remain in place long-term, it will consider finding a producer to package its cider in the U.S.
For other small distillers, even that option may be too costly.
Mike Heisz, owner of Junction 56 Distillery in Stratford, Ont., which produces vodka, gin, whisky and other spirits, said he would like to eventually sell some of its products in nearby states such as New York and Michigan, but the continuing trade pressure has stopped that from happening.
“We’re not big enough to take on the risk of spending a bunch of time and money to open in a market that just happened to close down,” he said.
With reports from Jason Kirby
This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail
