Kentucky senators vote to end Trump tariffs that put bourbon ‘in the crossfire’
Both of Kentucky’s senators broke ranks with most other Republicans in a vote on Tuesday against some of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which one said have been causing “avoidable harm” to bourbon and other Kentucky commodities.
Sen. Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul joined three other Republicans and all Democrats to pass a bill that would stop tariffs on Brazilian imports by ending Trump’s national emergency. The measure passed on a 52-48 vote, but is unlikely to pass in the House.
Before the vote, McConnell sent out a statement criticizing Trump’s tariffs.
“Protectionists in Washington insist that the past several months have vindicated the policy of indiscriminate trade war against both close allies and strategic adversaries,” McConnell said. “But Kentuckians are especially well-equipped to sort the bluster from the truth.
“New trade barriers imposed this year have made it harder to sustain the supply chains that let thousands of Kentuckians build cars and appliances in the Commonwealth. Retaliatory tariffs on American products have turned agricultural income upside down for many of Kentucky’s nearly 70,000 family farms,” McConnell said.
McConnell indicated he would support efforts to end similar tariffs.
“Bourbon has been caught in the crossfire from Day One,” McConnell said. “And consumers are paying higher prices across the board as the true costs of trade barriers fall inevitably on them. Protectionists eagerly celebrate the revenue from tariff duties. But they don’t talk nearly as much about how much of that revenue they’ll spend protecting American growers and producers from the avoidable harm of their policies.”
The vote on Tuesday was about tariffs on Brazil, but Trump has used emergency declarations to place tariffs on other countries, including Canada.
How much have tariffs cost bourbon?
Earlier this week, Trump vowed to raise tariffs on many Canadian imports by another 10% to 45%, after an ad by the Government of Ontario criticizing U.S. tariffs featured excerpts from a 1987 speech by President Reagan against tariffs.
Trump also said he “terminated” all negotiations with Canada, which has pulled all American whiskey, bourbon and other spirits off its shelves in protest of Trump.
Canada had been a major U.S. trade partner and one of the largest markets in the world for Kentucky bourbon and American whiskey. The boycott cost Kentucky bourbon more than $19 million just in March through June as whiskey exports feel 55%, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.
