The dozens of Kentucky Bourbons listed on the BC Liquor Stores website range from a two ounce maker’s brand bottle, at a price of $ 5.29 to a bottle of $ 2,400 of Woodford, aged in Cognac barrels and presented in a crystal decision.
What they all have in common is the designation “currently unavailable”, having been drawn from the sale by the government of British Columbia in retaliation The prices of American president Donald Trump on Canadian imports.
Call time on us alcohol was a popular decision among Canadian provincial and territorial governments looking for means of retaliation in the trade war.
This is a way to capitalize on government control over the alcohol sector, explains Samuel Roscoe, a professor at the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.
He said that British Columbia and other provinces use their jurisdiction over alcohol sales to damage American businesses and send a message that American prices are unjustified and harmful on both sides of the border.
“In my opinion, it is a fairly effective way to attract the attention of American companies and to realize that the prices lead to commercial wars, and we are now two days in a very important trade war between (what) was two business partners,” he said on Wednesday.
Governments do not have the authority or capacity to implement such a ban for many other types of goods purchased by private companies, said Roscoe.
“It is very difficult for the government to take place there, and that is why they have targeted prices,” he said about the American alcohol ban, as well as Ottawa’s adoption of 25% over 30 billion dollars of goods imported from the United States.
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The provinces such as Ontario, Quebec and Alberta, among others, ordered their alcohol regulators to stop buying all American alcohol, while British Columbia prohibited alcohol from “red states” that voted for Trump last fall.
Jim Beam Kentucky whiskey bottles are presented in an alcohol alcohol store in Quec (SAQ) in Montreal, Friday, February 7, 2025.
Canadian Press Images / Graham Hughes
The British Columbia Tariff Response website indicates that actions will lead to an annual loss estimated at $ 40 million for manufacturers “in states governed by elected officials most favorable to the unjust prices of Trump”.
The movements have the attention of the governor of Kentucky Andy Beshear, a Democrat in a deeply red state that has spoken against Trump’s prices, affirming that the trade war would cause “significant damage” to people and businesses, including those involved in the Bourbon industry.
“These prices, which are the result of an individual, will cause an increase in our gas prices, will increase our prices of the grocery store, increase the cost of housing in the United States,” said Beshear during an appearance on the power game of CTV News Channel this week.
Last month, Beshear wrote to the members of the Kentucky delegation at the Congress in Washington expressing “serious concerns” concerning the impacts of reprisal measures by Canada on the Bourbon Industry of the State.
The Bourbon industry represents more than $ 9 billion in economic production each year and supports more than 23,000 jobs in the state, he wrote.
Addressing journalists on Wednesday, Prime Minister of British Columbia, David Eby, said he had seen Kentucky concerns about the “boycott” of American alcohol.
“Their concern is of course the Canadian boycott but also the prospect of a Mexican boycott as well as the prospect of a boycott of the European Union,” he said.
In a statement to the Legislative Assembly on the same day, Eby said that the traction of Florida Rum, Texas Vodka, Tennessee Whiskey and Kentucky Bourbon of the shelves of British Columbia “would show the president’s allies on the integrated nature of our relationship”.
Not everyone is convinced that the ban on American alcohol is the best strategy, including Michael Devereux, professor at the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia.
“It seems to me that it would be better to simply counter as with similar, which is a 25% price on the goods you have decided … You want to target,” he said, adding that such a decision would increase the income from the British Columbia Government.
“The simple fact of putting a general ban on sales is in fact nothing, except making sellers in the red states very, very upset,” said Devereux.
Roscoe said that the ban on American alcohol by other provinces and territories probably would have an impact on reprisals stronger than the ban on the “red state” of British Columbia.
But the Canadians themselves meet the prices and talk about Trump to make Canada on the 51st state by avoiding American products in general, he said.
“So, even if they do not go ahead, if the government of British Columbia has no general ban, I think that American alcohol firms will be damaged anyway because of the movement of the Canadian purchase, which seems to really gain steam.”
When he was asked if British Columbia should be concerned with harming relations with neighboring “blue” democratic states in the event of an outright ban on American alcohol, Roscoe said that damage had already been caused by Trump.
“I don’t really think the Canadians are considering relations with, you know, the more the left states of California and Washington and Oregon.
“I think we are upset by the Trump administration in general,” he said.
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