Donald Trump has promised to remove all tariffs on Irish whiskey during a visit to Ireland over the weekend.
As with nearly all EU goods sold to the US under a deal agreed between President Trump and the European Commission’s Ursula von der Leyen last year, whiskey is currently subject to a 15 percent tariff.
Trump was in Ireland to Irish Golf Open in Doonbeg this weekend. He said that during the trip he was constantly lobbied about whiskey tariffs.
“A lot of people asked me”, including Ireland’s golfer, Shane Lowry, said Trump before boarding Air Force One for his journey home.
The US previously granted a tariff exemption for UK spirits including Northern Ireland whiskey and Scotch whisky and the EU spirits industry has been pushing hard for the same kind of deal for the European Union.
Trump said that the tariff relief on Irish Whiskey would apply to “just Ireland”, not the EU.
But since the European Union has a common external tariff, it likely means any Irish whiskey exported from anywhere in the EU to the US would be subject to zero tariffs.
But his decision has raised questions about other European spirits, particularly bourbon which is in the same broad tax code as whiskies.
The EU spirits association, spiritsEUROPE, would like to see the EU and US agreed to a “zero-for-zero” deal. That would mean convincing Trump to drop tariffs on all EU spirit exports, in return for US spirits getting the same deal.
Responding to Trump’s announcement about Irish whiskey this morning, spiritsEUROPE’s Director for Competitiveness & Trade, Pauline Bastidon, said:
“We welcome President Trump’s announcement that the United States will remove tariffs on Irish whiskey and urge the US administration to implement this exemption as soon as possible, providing much needed certainty for producers, businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.
We call on this exemption to be extended to all EU spirits categories as a matter of urgency. Restoring the zero-for-zero tariff arrangement that has been so beneficial to transatlantic spirits trade would support producers, farmers and the hospitality sector on both sides of the Atlantic, and provide a lasting basis for growth in the sector.”