President Donald Trump’s administration is using another tariff threat to put fresh pressure on Canadian provinces to end their boycotts of U.S. alcohol . But provincial leaders aren’t backing off.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he won’t lift his province’s ban on the sale of American wine and spirits in government-run stores unless the United States removes sectoral tariffs on autos and steel. “We have to negotiate through strength, not weakness. And we need to throw everything on the table,” he told reporters in Charlottetown on Tuesday. Trump is “nothing but a bully,” he added.
Canada is still angling for a comprehensive trade deal with the United States, and appears set on using alcohol as a bargaining chip. Prime Minister Mark Carney told reporters that any decision to lift a ban “will be taken by the provinces themselves each individually, and should only be taken — in my judgment — as part of an overall agreement.”
Several Canadian provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, pulled U.S. wine and spirits from government-operated stores after Trump started a trade war last year, costing American booze-makers millions of dollars in sales. Even though alcohol accounts for a tiny fraction of trade between the two countries, the initiative is very visible and has been irritating the White House.
Canada is “highly discriminatory on dairy products, U.S. alcohol,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business Network Tuesday, dubbing the new tariff threat as “just reciprocity to what they’ve done to our great U.S. companies.”
Other provinces aren’t keen to back down either. “There is not a chance in hell that U.S. alcohol is going back on the shelf,” British Columbia Premier David Eby told reporters in Charlottetown, where Canadian premiers have assembled to meet.
Before Carney’s comments, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said he expects the prime minister to ask provinces to remove their alcohol bans to smooth discussions with the U.S. administration. Saskatchewan and its neighbour, Alberta, permit the sale of American liquor in government stores.
“That’ll be a decision each province will have to make, but that ask should come from the federal government,” Moe said. “They’re at the negotiating table.”
International trade lawyer Mark Warner argued there’s no legal basis for the provinces’ action.
“The booze ban is problematic because it’s kind of a blunt instrument,” he said in an interview, adding that dropping the measure might help advance trade discussions with the U.S. while having minimal economic effect.
“If Canadians will not buy American bourbon and Californian wine, you don’t need a ban,” Warner said. “Put it back on the store and nobody will buy it.”