Canada’s boycott of American alcohol slashes U.S. exports

Canada’s retreat from American wine, beer and spirits has become one of the clearest signs of how trade tensions between Washington and Ottawa are reshaping consumer markets on both sides of the border.

In the space of a year, imports of U.S. alcohol into Canada fell by more than 70% after President Donald Trump imposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico in February 2025 and Canadian provinces responded by pulling American products from liquor store shelves. The shift has hit wine especially hard. U.S. wine exports to Canada dropped from $460 million to $103 million, while the American share of Canada’s imported wine market fell from 21% in 2024 to 5% in 2025.

The changes have been driven by both tariffs and non-tariff retaliation. Canada’s federal government imposed its own 25% tariffs on about $30 billion in U.S. goods, while provincial liquor authorities in eight of the country’s 10 provinces stopped importing or selling American beer, wine and spirits. In many places, products were removed from shelves and online stores. Some provincial officials also targeted goods from U.S. states that had backed Trump.

Andrew Muhammad, an agricultural economist who studies trade in alcohol, said Canada offers a clear example of how quickly access to a politically sensitive market can disappear. He said once consumers and retailers adjust to new suppliers, it becomes harder for foreign producers to win back shelf space.

Before the dispute escalated, Canada was one of the most important foreign markets for American alcohol. From 2022 through 2024, it accounted for about 35% of U.S. wine exports, more than 15% of beer exports and as much as 13% of distilled spirits exports. In 2024, those shipments totaled $744 million and made up more than 20% of Canada’s alcohol imports.

That relationship had long rested on geography, consumer habits and relatively open trade under the North American Free Trade Agreement and later the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. But after Trump returned to office and revived tariff threats, that access narrowed quickly.

The impact was broad across categories. U.S. distilled spirits exports to Canada fell from $238 million to $89 million, while beer exports dropped from $47 million to $17 million. Together with wine losses, total U.S. alcohol exports to Canada declined by $536 million.

The dispute has remained active even after some broader trade easing last summer, when the two countries reached a partial deal that exempted about half of USMCA-compliant goods from ongoing tariffs. The provincial restrictions on American alcohol stayed in place.

The issue resurfaced again in April 2026 when Jamieson Greer, the top U.S. trade official, said existing American levies on Canadian industrial goods would remain and could be tightened unless Canada lifted its alcohol restrictions. Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back sharply.

Canadian consumers have not been drinking less overall. Instead, they have shifted toward products from other countries and domestic producers. United Nations trade data show that American wine’s share of Canada’s imported wine market fell sharply last year as imports from other major wine-exporting countries rose enough to offset much of the decline from the United States. Imports of beer, wine and spirits from other countries also increased by 9%, 15% and 7%, respectively.

Craig Peters, chief executive of Barnburner Whiskey in Canada, said in an interview with VinePair that bars were not simply replacing one bottle with another but were rethinking their entire back bar. He said independent operators in particular were moving away from long-established U.S. brands and turning more often to Canadian labels across categories.