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US President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he was scrapping tariffs on Irish whiskey, restoring a level playing field with Scotland and Northern Ireland, in a surprise announcement at the end of his two-day trip to the country.
“Everyone’s been bugging me saying ‘would you do me a favour? It’s so unfair, what’s going on. Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey?’” Trump said during a prize-giving ceremony at the culmination of the Irish Open golf championship at his Doonbeg course.
He said Shane Lowry, the Irish golfer who won the tournament, and Ireland’s Taoiseach Micheál Martin had both spoken to him about the issue.
“And I said on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey,” Trump said to cheers.
Trump, who has used levies as the cornerstone of his trade policy, dropped tariffs on whisky made in the UK in April, saying the move was “in honour” of King Charles III, who had made a state visit to the US.
Irish whiskey, one of the country’s signature exports, is currently subject to a 10 per cent tariff, but at one point last year the levy was 15 per cent. That put it at a disadvantage with Scotch, which has a larger US market share, and the product made in Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK.
The Irish Whiskey Association, a trade lobby group, said it “heartily welcomed” the move as a boost for an industry that supported thousands of jobs and represented millions of euros in investment.
“Nothing exemplifies the US-Ireland trade relationship better than Irish Whiskey,” it said, saying a return to tariff-free trade would “lead to further growth and investment”.
Irish distillers exported €450mn of whiskey to the US last year and purchased €80mn of US casks.
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States also welcomed the move.
“This announcement is another positive step toward reducing barriers to spirits trade,” Chris Swonger, the council’s president and chief executive, said in a statement.
Ireland has come in for criticism from Trump in the past for its large trade surplus with the US and proliferation of tech and pharma companies. During his visit, Trump said the country had “fleeced us”, adding that the Irish were friendly but could be “vicious bastards” in business.
But the whiskey announcement ended his visit on a high note after he sparked a stir on Saturday by calling for Irish reunification.
Trump declared that reunification “is going to happen anyway” and would be “a very cool thing”, ignoring the desires of the pro-UK unionist community and the mechanism established under the region’s 1998 peace deal, whereby the region’s constitutional future would be decided by a referendum.
On Sunday, he doubled down on his remarks, saying: “It seems to me that one of the naturals of all time is to put them [Northern Ireland and Ireland] together.”
Additional reporting by Ilya Gridneff in Toronto