The Distilled Spirits Council recently participated in two events to highlight the importance of export markets to the U.S. spirits industry.
Distilled Spirits Council Senior Vice President for International Issues and Trade Christine LoCascio spoke at the Glass Packaging Institute’s annual meeting about the tremendous growth in U.S. spirits exports over the past two decades and the current trade issues of importance to the U.S. spirits industry, including retaliatory tariffs on U.S. whiskeys and other U.S. spirits.
“The U.S. spirits industry and our consumers worldwide have benefited from trade agreements, which have opened markets around the world for U.S. exporters,” said LoCascio. “We hope that the recently-concluded U.S.-Mexico-Canada agreement will lead to further discussions in North America, the EU and elsewhere resulting in the swift removal of the retaliatory tariffs on American spirits exports, so that free and fair trade for distilled spirits can be resumed.”
In addition, Council Director for International Trade Robert Maron moderated a panel focusing on the retaliatory tariffs imposed on a range of U.S. agricultural exports at the U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council’s fall meeting. Scott Harris, of Catoctin Creek Distilling, noted during the panel the negative impact the tariffs are having on his company’s efforts to expand exports to the EU.
“Not only are the tariffs impacting my company, but also my eight farmer suppliers, my glass producer in Pennsylvania and my cork producer in South Carolina,” Harris concluded.