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Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that the provincial ban on U.S. liquor could end quickly if the Americans bend on the tariffs that have pummeled key sectors in this country like steel, autos and forest products.
Carney said the provinces have barred American beer, wine and spirits because U.S. President Donald Trump launched a trade war that has crippled certain industries, and there’s no public appetite for a policy change until the White House delivers some relief.
“We can make progress very quickly on that with progress in other areas,” Carney told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa on housing.
WATCH | Carney says U.S. tariffs violate CUSMA as Americans bemoan provincial booze bans:
Carney says U.S. tariffs violate CUSMA as Americans bemoan provincial booze bans
On Thursday, when asked how provincial alcohol restrictions would factor into the upcoming review of the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement, Prime Minister Mark Carney responded that the fleet of U.S. tariffs on Canadian industries ‘are more than irritants, those are violations of our trade deal.’ The day before, American trade envoy Jamieson Greer said the U.S. is running out of patience with provincial liquor bans.
“We’re looking to negotiate something mutually agreeable, and there will be adjustments there when we make progress on that,” he said, speaking of the Section 232 tariffs on Canadian industrial products that have led to plant and mill closures.
“I’m still confident that we will make progress. Those judgments will be made by the provinces.”
Carney bristled at a question about U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer’s threat Wednesday to levy retaliatory measures against Canada if the liquor boycott continues.
While testifying before Congress, Greer said: “My sense is there may have to be an enforcement action to deal with this issue on wine and spirits in Canada.” He did not offer any specifics.
“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. Those are more than irritants. Those are violations of our trade deal, OK?” Carney said.
WATCH | ‘At the end of our rope’: U.S. trade envoy mulls action against provincial booze bans:
‘At the end of our rope’: U.S. trade envoy mulls action against provincial booze bans
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the U.S. is running out of patience in asking Canada to remove its provinces’ restrictions on sales of American alcohol. ‘My sense is there may have to be an enforcement action to deal with this issue on wine and spirits in Canada,’ Greer said.
Carney said those steep levies have hurt the provinces and they are in no mood to cut the Americans any slack by restocking their booze in government-run stores.
Alberta and Saskatchewan started restocking U.S. alcohol last year, but the ban remains in place everywhere else including Ontario where the LCBO, the world’s largest purchaser of liquor, remains steadfast in keeping those products off the shelves. The ban has been devastating for American liquor interests.
“I’d do it in a heartbeat folks, but when he’s destroying our auto sector, putting in jeopardy tens of thousands of jobs,” there will be no movement to bring those products back, Ford said of Trump at a conference in Toronto.
Carney said Ford, as “the client” given his government’s control over the LCBO, is within his rights to keep the boycott in place.
A half-empty shelf of American whiskey is pictured at an LCBO in Toronto on March 4, 2025. (Laura Proctor/The Canadian Press)
But the prime minister needled Ford for running ads in the U.S. last fall that Ottawa maintains derailed progress on a possible tariff relief deal.
Carney has said he warned Ford against running ads that featured former president Ronald Reagan pillorying tariffs. Those ads angered Trump and he walked away from the negotiating table.
“How did it work? Did he listen?” Carney asked of Ford. “I was right, by the way.”
Ford calls Reagan ‘greatest president’
In an interview with CNN on Thursday, Ford said Trump should emulate Reagan, who he called “the greatest president the U.S. has ever seen,” in part because he promoted free trade and brokered a landmark agreement with Canada in the 1980s that prompted closer economic cooperation.
“Maybe he should have a conversation with him or pull up some of the conversations Reagan had with the American people,” Ford said. Reagan died in 2004.
“It wasn’t about killing trade, it was about expanding trade. If he took a page out of Reagan’s book the whole world would be better, not to mention the relationship between Canada and the U.S.”
Trump keeps a portrait of Reagan in the Oval Office and has repeatedly mischaracterized the late Republican president’s philosophy on tariffs, which Reagan clearly said “hurt every American worker and consumer.” Trump bogusly called Ford’s ad featuring Reagan’s anti-tariffs message “fake.”
Greer isn’t the only one who has raised the liquor ban.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a frequent Canada critic, told Congress on Wednesday that it’s “outrageous that Canada will not put U.S. spirits on the shelf,” while making no mention of his department’s tariffs that initially spurred the retaliation.
Lutnick’s remarks prompted a rebuke from New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
“They won’t do it because of the insults from this president, and comments like yours,” she said.
