‘Far-reaching consequences’ for Kentucky bourbon after LCBO strips U.S. spirits off shelves

Despite the announcement that some tariffs will be delayed until April 2, Ontario’s premier won’t budge until tariffs are completely gone.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford has promised to keep U.S. alcohol off LCBO shelves until the tariffs placed on Canadian goods by President Donald Trump are dropped “entirely.”

As of Tuesday, all American-made alcohol was stripped from LCBO shelves and its online catalogue as a “first round of retaliation” against the Trump administration’s levies, Ford said Tuesday.

Ford has previously singled-out Kentucky, the deeply red state touting a billion-dollar bourbon industry, as being particularly hard hit by Ontario’s move to remove U.S. liquor.

“The Governor of Kentucky said ‘Don’t touch our bourbon,’ and I said, ‘Governor, that’s the first thing we are going after. We’re going after their bourbon,’” the premier said in a speech earlier this week. “Well, we’re the largest purchaser of bourbon in the world for Kentucky bourbon manufacturers—they’re done, they’re gone.”

Here is how the retaliatory measure is being viewed south of the border:

‘Significant harm’

Speaking to Vassy Kapelos in an exclusive interview on CTV News Channel’s Power Play on Tuesday, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the trade war is going to cause “significant harm” to people and businesses, including those involved in the state’s bourbon industry.

“These tariffs, which are the result of one individual, are going to cause our prices of gas to go up, are going to cause our prices of groceries to go up, are going to raise the cost of housing all across the United States,” the Democrat said, likening the levies as a betrayal from the Trump administration.

Canada has implemented retaliatory tariffs on $30 billion in U.S. imports, though it has agreed to delay a second wave of retaliatory tariffs on $125 billion of U.S. goods until April 2 following Trump’s decision to grant an exemption on goods covered under an existing free trade pact until that same date.

The retaliatory tariffs that are in place cover a range of goods, including about $589 million in spirits and other products.

That will in turn make it more expensive for key American industries like Kentucky bourbon makers, to sell their goods up north. Canada is Kentucky’s top export destination, shipping over $9.3 billion in products in 2024.

The Kentucky Distillers’ Association (KDA) says bourbon is a $9 billion “signature industry in the Commonwealth, responsible for more than 23,000 jobs.”

“Unfortunately, the return of retaliatory tariffs on American whiskey will have far-reaching consequences across Kentucky, home to 95 per cent of the world’s bourbon,” Eric Gregory, KDA’s President, said in a statement issued Tuesday in response to Canada’s retaliatory measures.

“That means hard-working Americans—corn farmers, truckers, distillery workers, barrel makers, bartenders, servers and the communities and businesses built around Kentucky Bourbon will suffer.”

Cal Bricker, president of Spirits Canada, pointed out to CTV News Toronto that bourbon is a trade-protected item that cannot be made anywhere else but the U.S.

“That niche, that space in bourbon is a pretty specialized product. They can try and fill it but they can’t do it in any legitimate way and call it bourbon, it would be illegal,” Bricker said.

The KDA underlined that fact.

“Retaliatory measures against bourbon harm these markets and jeopardize growth for years to come, including the unjust and disproportionate removal of American spirits from retail shelves and prohibition on new purchases of alcohol from American companies,” the associated said.

Brough Brothers Distillery’s Victor Yarbrough, a distillery headquartered in Louisville, Ky., told CTV News that they were in the midst of a striking a deal with Alcool NB Liquor—New Brunswick’s main liquor retailer—when tariffs stopped the pen from signing.

“The tariff issue has made it difficult to plan because of the uncertainty,” Yarbrough said in an emailed statement.

“The removal of American-made liquor brands certainly hurts our spirits industry and we hope that we can come to an amicable resolution and mend fences. At the end of the day, no one wins when family feuds.”

With files from CTV News’ National Correspondent Rachel Aiello