Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has linked any rollback on bans on US liquor to Washington easing the Section 232 tariffs hammering Canadian forest products, steel and autos, with mill and plant closures across the country, leaving provinces in no mood to restock American whiskey, wine and beer. Speaking to media outlets on Thursday, Carney was asked about US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s threat of retaliatory action against the LCBO and other provincial liquor authorities for continuing to keep American spirits off the shelves.
“You know what’s an irritant? A 50 per cent tariff on steel and aluminum, 25 per cent on automobiles, all of the tariffs on forest products,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa. “Those are more than irritants. Those are violations of our trade deal, OK?”
Wood Central understands Carney’s reference to forest-products tariffs takes in the long-running US duties on Canadian softwood lumber, the largest single forest-products trade flow between the two countries, with the prime minister grouping these alongside steel, aluminium and automotive duties under the broader Section 232 framework rather than breaking out specific lines in his Thursday remarks.
The provincial boycott followed US President Donald Trump’s decision earlier this year to launch a trade war that Carney said had crippled key Canadian sectors, with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario — described as the world’s largest purchaser of liquor — holding firm against any move to put American products back on its shelves. “We can make progress very quickly on that with progress in other areas,” Carney said of the alcohol ban, with the prime minister adding that any negotiated lifting of the ban would follow rather than precede US movement on the broader tariff schedule.
Greer told the US Congress on Wednesday that “there may have to be an enforcement action to deal with this issue on wine and spirits in Canada,” whilst Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick separately called the Canadian boycott “outrageous,” drawing a sharp counter from New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen, who told Lutnick the bans persist “because of the insults from this president, and comments like yours.”
It comes as Alberta and Saskatchewan have already restocked US alcohol, while the ban remains in place across the rest of Canada, including Ontario, where Premier Doug Ford has tied any concession to relief from tariffs damaging the auto sector and other manufacturing industries.
“I’d do it in a heartbeat folks, but when he’s destroying our auto sector, putting in jeopardy tens of thousands of jobs,” Ford told a conference in Toronto. The Ontario premier, who controls the LCBO and was described by Carney as “the client” on the question, separately told CNN that Trump should emulate Ronald Reagan’s free-trade record on tariffs.
Carney needled Ford for running ads in the United States last year that featured Reagan denouncing tariffs, with Ottawa maintaining the ads angered Trump and derailed progress on a tariff relief deal. “How did it work? Did he listen?” Carney said of his earlier warning to Ford. “I was right, by the way.”
Trump keeps a portrait of Reagan in the Oval Office and has previously rejected the late president’s anti-tariff record, calling Ford’s Reagan-led ad campaign fake despite Reagan publicly stating tariffs “hurt every American worker and consumer.”
