US Tariff Threat on Alcohol Met with Canadian Provincial Defiance

US President Donald Trump’s administration is using another tariff threat to put fresh pressure on Canadian provinces to end their boycotts of American alcohol. But provincial leaders are not backing off.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he would not lift his province’s ban on the sale of American wine and spirits in government-run stores unless the US removes sectoral tariffs on cars and steel.

“We have to negotiate through strength, not weakness. And we need to throw everything on the table,” he told reporters in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, on Tuesday. Trump is “nothing but a bully”, he added.

Canada is still angling for a comprehensive trade deal with the US, and appears set on using alcohol as a bargaining chip.

Canadian 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 US wine and spirits from government-operated stores after Trump started a trade war last year, costing American booze-makers millions of dollars in sales.