Ontario distillery halts Michigan whiskey shipments as US ban on Canadian alcohol takes effect
Wolfhead Distillery in Amherstburg, Ontario, has stopped shipping its Coffee Whisky Liqueur to Michigan after the US ban on Canadian alcohol took effect.
A distillery in Amherstburg, Ontario, has stopped shipping whiskey to Michigan after the United States imposed a ban on a range of Canadian goods, including alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles.
Wolfhead Distillery, located about 10 miles from the new Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Detroit and Windsor, has been selling its Coffee Whisky Liqueur in Michigan for the past five years. The company blends and bottles its own spirits and recently marked a decade of distilling.
Danielle Moldovan, the distillery's director of marketing and business development, said the business had been looking to expand. A group from Georgia expressed interest in the Coffee Whisky over the summer, while its Michigan importer wanted to bring in Vanilla Almond Biscotti and Banana Caramel Vodka.
Those plans are now on hold. "Those products are going to be put on hold right now until we have further clarification about what's going to happen, how long this ban's going to last," Moldovan said.
The ban, which took effect at 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, covers nearly $1 billion worth of Canadian imports. It follows a summer escalation in which the US imposed 50% tariffs on about $20 billion worth of Canadian goods, citing discrimination against American dairy, auto and alcoholic beverage producers. Canada responded with matching tariffs of 15%, 25% or 50%.
Moldovan said the dispute would raise the cost of importing Wolfhead's products into Michigan, and questioned whether the company's importer could absorb those costs. "I know we're not going to be able to eat those costs," she said.
She described the situation as unfortunate for a border town whose distillery draws American visitors daily. "I think I'll leave the politics to the politicians," she said. "We're a small business here in Amherstburg, and these tariff wars affect small businesses on both sides of the border."
The ban represents a small fraction of the roughly $880 billion in annual two-way trade between the two countries, but it marks a further escalation of President Donald Trump's second-term trade war with Canada.