U.S. Tariffs On Single Malt Cost Scotch Industry £500 Million And Counting
February 3, 2021Scotch whisky exports to the U.S. fell 35% to £949 million ($1.3b) from October 2019—when the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on single malts—through November 2020, according to the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA).
“The current situation is unsustainable,” said SWA chief executive Karen Betts. “Since tariffs were put in place, our exports to the U.S. have fallen by 35%, amounting to over half a billion pounds in lost exports. This is being borne by large and small producers alike, who are losing sales and market share in what has been for decades the industry’s largest and most valuable market, which they may never now recover.”
Betts urged a renewed effort on the part of the U.K. and U.S. to resolve the aerospace dispute that led to the tariffs, and also called for U.K. government support for the Scotch industry, “including a cut to excise duty in the March budget and a sustained push to reduce the basic customs duty in India, which is currently 150%.”
DISCUS recently noted that single malt Scotch supplier volumes in the U.S. slipped 6.5% to 2.4 million cases last year, under pressure from the tariffs, after averaging 7.8% annual growth in the preceding decade.
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