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Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition campaign ramps up

The Associated Cooperage Industries of America (ACIA) and the Virginia Spirits Association (VSA) have joined the Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition as duty hikes loom.

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Toasts Not Tariffs: American whiskey producers fear tariffs will be doubled

With the new additions, the Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition comprises 52 companies in the alcohol industry in the US.

Melissa Zoeller, executive director of ACIA, commented: “Tariffs on distilled spirits and wines affect American cooperages that supply barrels to distillers here in the US and worldwide.

“We are joining the Toasts Not Tariffs Coalition to ensure our voice is heard and to highlight the devastating wide-ranging downstream economic impacts of tariffs on wines and spirits.”

The new recruits have joined as the spirits industry faces a potential return of retaliatory EU tariffs on American whiskey at a new, increased rate of 50% from 31 March 2025. The reintroduction of tariffs by the European Union (EU) would be part of an ongoing dispute regarding steel and aluminium tariffs introduced under Donald Trump’s first stint as US president.

A statement from the coalition said: “In less than three months, the EU’s tariffs on American whiskeys will return at a massive 50% rate.

“Now more than ever, it’s imperative that the entire beverage alcohol industry join our voices together to send a strong and unified message that tariffs on beverage alcohol products must come to an immediate end.”

The coalition is urging the US government to secure agreements with the EU and the UK to permanently remove tariffs on US, UK and EU spirits and wines, and to ensure new tariffs are not introduced. The tariffs were suspended in December 2023, but the suspension is due to end in March.

When tariffs were last imposed on American whiskey, exports to the EU – the category’s biggest export market – fell by 20% from US$522 million in 2018 to US$440m in 2021.

Don Tierney, executive director of the VSA, added: “The beverage alcohol sector supports millions of good-paying jobs in every state, including more than 18,000 in Virginia. Reimposing these tariffs will threaten those jobs.”

In October last year, trade body the Distilled Spirits Council of the US warned the reintroduction and doubling of the EU’s retaliatory tariffs on American whiskey would reverse the “incredible and much-needed rebound in US spirits exports”.

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