For whiskey distiller Jim Nash, there are no winners from the tariffs announced on Wednesday by US president Donald Trump.
“My initial reaction was disappointed that there’s going to be a trade war, tariffs, globally. Nobody wanted that, and it’s going to hurt everybody – American consumers, us, everybody.
“That’s the fear everybody has, that you’ll see distilleries start to close, and nobody wants to see that.”
Co-owner of the Wild Atlantic Distillery near Castlederg, Co Tyrone, he will still export whiskey to the US but will be “a lot more selective and cautious about where we enter the market”.
“This obviously will affect the price at the end for the consumer, so I’m sure what our distributor was planning to order from us will be reduced somewhat until everybody’s confident where we stand,” he said.
He is sceptical about the suggestion there may be a competitive advantage for whiskey manufacturers in Northern Ireland because the 10 per cent tariffs imposed on UK exports is half that of the 20 per cent imposed on the EU.
“It may give us a slight advantage but I wouldn’t be getting too excited about it, simply because we are an all-Ireland industry, we go under the label of Irish whiskey, and the law is one thing but implementation on the ground is another.
“We’re also concerned about where this is going to stop – are we going to be at 20 per cent, are we going to be at 10 per cent, is it going to get bigger?
“The uncertainty is the most difficult part of it, because nobody’s quite certain how high this could go.
“We also rely on bourbon casks and rye casks from the US market for maturing our new-make spirit into whiskey, and tariffs on casks are going to increase our costs at this end,” he said.
“It’s another cost added on top of all the costs we had with Brexit and all the costs with Covid.”
On Thursday, business and political leaders in Northern Ireland reacted with concern to the imposition of tariffs by the US.
The move was discussed at a meeting of the Northern Executive at Stormont on Thursday, with the First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, saying afterwards that what had been announced was “concerning, it creates instability, it’s very much a race to the bottom, it doesn’t serve anyone’s interests, and I think it creates a period of, once again, uncertainty and instability”.
The deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, said Northern Ireland must not become “collateral damage” in any escalation in tariff disputes, and said “this means pushing for all possible actions to protect Northern Ireland, especially against any retaliatory tariffs by the EU”.
The North’s Minister for Finance, Caoimhe Archibald, spoke on Thursday to the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, and the UK trade secretary, Jonathan Reynolds.
She outlined “five key asks” of the Irish and British governments, including that they “keep the North’s unique circumstances in mind in trade negotiations and in terms of any counter-measures.”
The Minister also said the two governments should “act in concert … to minimise divergence between Britain and the EU” and bring forward an economic package to protect Northern Ireland’s international competitiveness.
Speaking on RTÉ radio, the Tánaiste said the consequences of two different tariff rates on the island of Ireland would create “huge complexities” for products produced on a cross-Border basis and the issues were similar to those raised by Brexit.
“This does seem like a bit of a throwback to conversations we had in the past, where you have two different realities on the island of Ireland,” he said. Additional reporting – PA
