By Bo Erickson and Padraic Halpin
DOONBEG, Ireland, Sept 13 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said at the end of a visit to Ireland on Sunday that he would remove a 10% tariff on Irish whiskey, a duty that currently falls under those imposed on all European Union wine and spirit exports to the United States.
Trump made the announcement in front of a crowd of Irish golf fans at a tournament held at a course owned by his family. He met Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Dublin on Saturday at the start of a 48-hour visit to the country.
“Taoiseach (Ireland’s Prime Minister) and I talked about it and Shane (golfer Shane Lowry) talked about it and everybody has been bugging me saying ‘would you do me a favor? It’s so unfair what’s going on. Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey?,” Trump said.
“And I said on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey,” he announced to loud cheers from the crowd.
Wine and spirits exports to the U.S. were included in a 15% tariff applied on most items under a EU-U.S. trade deal struck last year.
Subsequent new U.S. tariffs on 60 trading partners in July, including the EU, brought the rate down to 10%. The move was part of efforts to rebuild Trump’s near-global tariff wall after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down his initial duties.
The Irish Whiskey Association (IWA) welcomed the announcement and said it would continue to work with its EU and U.S. counterparts to secure a return to the zero-for-zero tariff arrangement for all drinks exports.
“Nothing exemplifies the US-Ireland trade relationship better than Irish Whiskey,” IWA Director Eoin O Caitin said in a statement, adding that the lobby group looked forward to seeing the announcement fully implemented.
(Reporting by Bo Erickson in Doonbeg, Ireland, Padraic Halpin in Dublin and David Ljunggren in Ottawa; Editing by Sergio Non and Nick Zieminski)
