The Tariffs Have Arrived: Here's What You Need to Know

Yesterday, in a speech from the White House Rose Garden, President Trump announced his long-anticipated plan for sweeping tariffs on trade partners around the globe. The tariffs call for an across-the-board 10% hike for most countries, in addition to higher rates on certain other trading partners, including 20% tariffs on products from the European Union. The UK had an easier time of it, receiving a slightly lower rate of 10%, thus impacting scotch whisky to a lesser degree than wines and spirits from the EU. Other key exporters like New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and Argentina will also face a 10% tariff.

The 10% baseline tariff does not apply to Mexico and Canada, although those countries are already in the crosshairs with a separate tariff regime of 25%.

The French federation of wine and spirits exporters expects the move to reduce U.S. sales by 20%. In the U.S., the Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) called for negotiations to quickly resolve the impasse. “We urge President Trump to liberate the U.S. spirits sector from these tariff disputes by negotiating deals that get us back to fair and reciprocal zero-for-zero tariffs for spirits products,” said DISCUS president and CEO Chris Swonger. For context, DISCUS noted that “nearly 86% of U.S. spirits exports ($2.1 billion) go to countries that eliminated tariffs on U.S. spirits. In exchange, the U.S. opened its market for imported spirits by eliminating tariffs. As a result, approximately 98% of spirits imported into the U.S. originate from countries that have eliminated tariffs on U.S. spirits exports.”

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) expressed its “disappointment” over the tariff decision, which will impact scotch’s biggest export market. “We welcome the intensive efforts by the UK government to reach a deal with the U.S. administration, and we continue to support this measured and pragmatic approach toward a mutually beneficial resolution,” the group said.

In the first Trump administration, a dispute over aluminum and steel led the EU to impose a 25% retaliatory tariff on American whiskey, which resulted in a 20% sales drop, from $552 million to $440 million (2018-2021). “During the last three years that the tariffs have been suspended,” DISCUS added, “American whiskey exports to the EU surged nearly 60%, climbing from $439 million in 2021 to $699 million in 2024.”

In the meantime, the EU is preparing to fight back with its own tariffs, probably to be expedited soon.