The only ones who have managed to make clear progress on this issue are the British.
The United States has barred packaged Canadian wine, beer and spirits from entering the country as of September 29, the sharpest move yet in a year of rapidly shifting wine tariffs. The ban, layered on top of 50 percent duties imposed in August, redraws the North American drinks trade just as European wine settles at a 10 percent U.S. tariff rate and American wine faces a 39 percent basic duty in China.
Canada: from 50 percent tariffs to a ban
Packaged Canadian alcohol, including bottled and canned wine and beer, can no longer be imported into the United States. Many of the affected products were already subject to 50 percent tariffs imposed August 22, 2026 under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, covering about $20 billion of Canadian goods. Scope modifications effective September 15 extended the duties, and the import prohibition on certain wine, beer and spirits took effect September 29.
Bulk alcohol got off more lightly. Wine shipped in containers larger than 4 litres and not packaged for direct consumption escapes the ban, though it is not necessarily exempt from the 50 percent tariffs. Canada responded September 8 with dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs of 15 to 50 percent on roughly 700 U.S. products.
The ban lands on a trade already under strain: Canadian provinces pulled U.S. alcohol from shelves earlier in the dispute, and Canadian producers now lose access to their largest foreign market for packaged goods.
Europe: 10 percent, with carve-outs in motion
European Union wine and spirits currently enter the United States at 10 percent. The rate has moved twice: a 15 percent tariff applied under the EU-U.S. framework took effect in August 2025, and a July 2026 revision covering 60 trading partners brought wine and spirits down to 10 percent, part of the effort to rebuild the tariff structure after the Supreme Court struck down the earlier IEEPA-based duties in February 2026.
Exemptions are being negotiated country by country. The United Kingdom secured the removal of U.S. tariffs on Scotch whisky in May. On September 13, President Donald Trump pledged to remove the 10 percent duty on Irish whiskey, telling a crowd in Doonbeg, Ireland: "And I said on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey." No effective date was given, and the Irish Whiskey Association said it would keep pressing for a return to zero-for-zero terms on all drinks exports. Its director said: "Nothing exemplifies the US-Ireland trade relationship better than Irish Whiskey."
French Cognac remains subject to the tariff and its makers are lobbying hard for relief. "I get the impression that not much is moving forward," French MEP Eric Sargiacomo, deputy chair of the European Parliament's intergroup on wines and spirits, told Euronews. "The only ones who have managed to make clear progress on this issue are the British." A June threat of a 100 percent tariff on French wine and champagne over France's digital services tax was defused in August, when President Emmanuel Macron said both sides had reached an agreement.
China: the other direction
For exporters looking east, the arithmetic is stark. Without a free trade agreement, EU wine pays China's 14 percent most-favored-nation duty on bottled and sparkling wine (20 percent on bulk), plus 10 percent consumption tax and 13 percent import VAT. Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Georgia and, since May 1, 2026, South Africa enter duty-free. The United States faces a 39 percent basic duty on wine in China, before consumption tax and VAT, with a further suspended retaliatory tariff in the background.
The practical message for wine executives: tariff exposure now varies more by origin than at any point in recent memory, and it is moving in weeks, not years. Landed-cost models built on the 15 percent EU rate are already stale, Canadian packaged supply chains need immediate rerouting or bulk conversion, and any China strategy for U.S. wine must clear a near-40 percent duty wall that FTA competitors do not face.