EU Backs Down on Kentucky Bourbon Tariffs Following Outcry From French and Irish Officials

Bottles of Bourbon whiskey made in the United States are shown on display at a liquor store in Niles, Ill., Thursday, March 13, 2025. (Photo: AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

According to leaked documents shared by Reuters, the E.U. has reversed course on its plan to hit American whiskey and wine with retaliatory tariffs.

The plan was first unveiled in March as a direct response to President Donald Trump’s 25% steel and aluminum tariffs. E.U. officials initially announced a tariff rebuttal targeting 26 billion euros worth of recognizably American goods, including but not limited to motorcycles, blue jeans, beef and bourbon. A redrafted proposal, which is slated for a vote on Wednesday, has reportedly been cut to 21 billion euros and will omit whiskey, wine and dairy.

The about-face follows pushback from member states including France, Italy and Ireland, all of whom have billions of dollars worth of alcohol exports hanging in the balance.

The existential threat looming above the debate was made by President Trump in mid-March. In a Truth Social post, he promised a crackdown on all E.U. origin alcohol unless European officials backed down on their 50% American whiskey tariff.

“If this Tariff is not removed immediately, the U.S. will shortly place a 200% Tariff on all WINES, CHAMPAGNES, & ALCOHOLIC PRODUCTS COMING OUT OF FRANCE AND OTHER E.U. REPRESENTED COUNTRIES,” Trump wrote. “This will be great for the Wine and Champagne businesses in the U.S.”

The announcement provoked an immediate reaction from politicians and industry insiders. In an interview with France Inter, French Prime Minister François Bayrou called the move a “misstep,” saying that Kentucky bourbon should not have been included as a “trade threat.” Ireland’s foreign minister, Simon Harris, said on Monday that he “questioned the strategic relevance” of a whiskey-specific tariff.

Eoin Ó Catháin, Director of the Irish Whiskey Association, says that the outcome could’ve proved catastrophic.

“Ireland exports 53 times more Irish Whiskey than we import bourbon,” Catháin told The Journal. “We agree that tariffs do not work for anyone – and this is a position we share with our US counterparts. We’ve enjoyed tariff free trade since 1997, why risk it now?”

The broader implications of an alcohol trade war would have proven devastating for France in particular.

Following a long-unwinding saga centered around electric car subsidies, China announced provisional tariffs on European brandy imports toward the end of October. The move incited panic among French cognac makers, who are responsible for 99.28% of all E.U. brandy imports to the country. Workers flooded the streets in protest as the stock price of industry giants like LVMH and Pernod Ricard took a tumble. Those brandy tariffs have yet to be repealed, effectively crippling exports to the world’s second-largest consumer of cognac.

The United States, meanwhile, is the world’s largest consumer of cognac. Were President Trump to impose a 200% tariff on European alcohol, it’s unclear if and how the French champagne and brandy industries would manage to recover.