TORONTO — The spirits industry says Canada's response to the U.S.-instigated trade war has led to sharply lower sales of booze from the U.S., as well as lower sales overall.
In a joint release, Spirits Canada and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States says U.S. hard alcohol sales dropped 66 per cent in the March 5 to April 31 period compared with a year earlier.
It says that sales of Canadian and imported spirits were also down, leading to a 12.8 per cent total decline in spirit sales for the nearly two-month stretch compared with last year.
The statistics come as several Canadian premiers stand firm on buy Canadian, and push back against comments made by U.S. ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra who told a conference Monday that U.S. President Donald Trump thinks Canada is "nasty" to deal with, in part because of bans on American alcohol.
Several provinces removed U.S. alcohol from shelves as Trump imposed tariffs and threatened to annex Canada, helping lead to the sharp drop in sales from the country.
B.C. Premier David Eby said Hoekstra's remarks show Canadians' efforts to stand up to Trump are "having an impact," and he encouraged people to "keep it up."