U.S. booze returning to B.C. liquor store shelves as tariffs delayed

U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs are on pause for at least 30 days, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Monday.

The B.C. government’s retaliatory measures are on hold after U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to pause his threatened tariffs on Canadian exports.

That means the bottles of imported alcohol that were pulled from provincial liquor stores over the weekend – including Jack Daniels whiskey, Bacardi rum and Bulleit bourbon – will be returning to the shelves.

“We will be pausing all of the actions that we put forward,” B.C. Premier David Eby said Monday afternoon.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Trump’s proposed tariffs of 25 per cent on nearly all Canadian exports – which had been expected to take effect Tuesday – were delayed “at least 30 days.”

While the reprieve was welcome news across the country, Eby noted that the threat will have a lingering effect, even if Trump does not follow through next month.

“The reality is that these unilateral actions by the United States, through the president, have changed our relationship for the foreseeable future,” Eby said.

If the tariffs come into effect in 30 days, that would be just days after the provincial budget is released. The premier said made the looming threat makes it very difficult to plan, especially because economic growth and jobs would be affected by the tariffs.

“It’s very possible that we could release a budget that is based on a set of assumptions that a few days later are out of date,” he said.

In the meantime, B.C. will continue to prepare a local response to complement the federal government’s own tariffs – which are also on hold, pending an escalation from the U.S. – just in case, the premier added.

“If there’s a (social media post) tomorrow that puts the tariffs back on, we need to be prepared,” Eby said. “We will be prepared.”

Trump’s decision to pause the tariffs followed new commitments from Canada to hire 10,000 frontline personal to protect the border, deem cartels to be terrorist organizations, and appoint a “fentanyl czar.”

The president has cited smuggling of the powerful opioid over the Canadian and Mexican borders as justification for the tariffs, something Eby, speaking on Fox News over the weekend, stressed the countries could address in a co-operative manner.

“Our hearts are filled with rage about the predators who traffic this around the globe, who move those precursor chemicals from China into Canada,” Eby said on the Fox Report.

“If the president has information, let’s bring our top intelligence and law enforcement officials together and fight this hard. That is the path forward. We want to fight that just as badly as he does.”

With files from The Canadian Press