montreal, quebec —
You may remember that a long time ago, in March 2025, at the beginning of the trade dispute between Canada and the United States, Canadian liquor stores in most provinces removed American products from their shelves en masse in response to U.S. tariffs.
US President Donald Trump certainly remembers. Boycotts were in the news again last week when his administration imposed new 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. In announcing the mandate, the White House said the boycott amounted to “an unjust and unequal imposition and discrimination” against U.S. alcohol producers.
Most provinces in Canada sell alcohol through government-owned retail stores, similar to ABC stores in the United States. Most state leaders have said they will not reverse the boycott. British Columbia Premier David Eby said last week that “there is no chance of U.S. alcohol returning to British Columbia shelves.”
The new tariffs raise questions about how well Canada’s alcohol boycott is working.
The US ban on alcohol sales certainly had an impact on the US side. U.S. liquor exports fell 3.8% in 2025, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade group for alcohol producers. This is partly due to Canada’s trade measures.
There is also evidence that boycotts have encouraged consumers to buy Canadian products. In its annual report released last week, Quebec liquor distributor SAQ reported a 69.4 per cent increase in Origin Québec products.
Paul Goulet, president of the Quebec Small Distillers Association, told CNN that the fallout from President Trump’s trade war has created an “unprecedented sense of unity across Canada.”
“In some ways, this situation may turn out to be constructive,” Goulet said. “This underscored the importance of further diversifying Canada’s economic partnership with trusted and committed partners.”
Isabelle Leduc, vice president of Distilleries de Montréal, called the company’s first year without U.S. products “amazing.”
“Sales of our spirits, particularly whiskey and spiced rum, increased by more than 35%,” Leduc said.
Other small alcohol producers in Canada have seen similar sales growth, albeit on a smaller scale.
“Demand for our whiskey is increasing, but production volumes are low so the impact on our overall business is minimal,” said Paul Cirka of Montreal’s CIRKA Distillery.
Chilka Distillery produces grain-to-bottle spirits, specializing in whisky, gin and vodka. The company’s small-scale craft production allows it to quickly adapt to market changes. But Silka says Quebec liquor stores don’t have enough inventory to make meaningful use of the extra space on their shelves since the boycott went into effect.
Sirka is hopeful that trade disruptions between Canada and its southern neighbor will be resolved quickly, but he is not optimistic. “I wish things could go back to the pre-Trump era and we could all play nice in the same sandbox, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen,” he said.
Mike Heise, a distiller from Ontario, told CNN he has seen an increase in sales at his craft distillery, Junction 56. He was reluctant to blame the increase on the boycott, but said he did see a benefit from more shelf space in Ontario liquor stores.
“It’s very difficult to judge because there are so many factors,” Heiss said. “We know there are even more opportunities for us in Ontario. We definitely have more distribution, which we believe has led to increased sales.”
Hice also sees a downside to the overall trade turmoil. His business was considering selling to the U.S. even before President Trump started imposing tariffs on Canada.
“We were actively looking at the possibility of exporting to the United States, but given all the uncertainty going on over the past few years, it was something we had put on the back burner,” Heise said.
“It’s hard to execute a plan when tomorrow there could be a tweet that changes everything,” he says.
But Montreal Distillery’s LeDuc said U.S. competition is still encroaching on Quebec, even if the province’s liquor distributors aren’t buying U.S. exports.
“Several international producers are finding ways to work within the current system by bottling their products in Quebec, while the spirits themselves are still produced in the United States,” Leduc said. When American company Proximo began bottling Kraken Spiced Rum in Quebec earlier this year, rum sales at the Leduc distillery declined.
CNN has reached out to Kraken’s owner, Proximo, for comment. “In response to the ban, some U.S. brands have made the decision to move the final conversion of their products from the U.S. to Quebec,” the province’s national alcohol retailer Société des l’Arcours du Québec said in a statement to CNN.
“These products are currently not only bottled but also modified by local companies and are therefore no longer subject to the ban,” the statement added.
Silka said it remains difficult to get Quebec products onto shelves in other provinces. He has been trying for 10 years to get a license to sell his liquor at retail beverage stores in Ontario, to no avail.
Partly influenced by President Trump’s latest tariffs, nine premiers agreed to a reform announced last week that would allow producers to sell directly to consumers across state lines, bypassing state liquor boards, in what Sirka called an “amazing first step.”
Quebec is not among the nine countries. The premier says the changes, which break the Quebec Liquor Commission’s monopoly, need to be implemented by MPs when the provincial legislature is in session.
With provincial elections coming up this fall, Sirka remains hopeful that Quebec will adopt the policy for fear of appearing “anti-Canadian.”
“Honestly, this is the most positive movement we’ve seen in a decade. It’s not because of internal lobbying or all the work we’ve done in the state. It’s because of external pressure,” he said.
