Toronto (Canada) (AFP) – Multiple Canadian provinces, including Ontario and Quebec, banned the sale of US alcohol on Tuesday, part of a broad national retaliation against import tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
“This is an enormous hit to American producers,” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in announcing the measures imposed by Canada’s largest province. Stores run by the publicly controlled Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) sell nearly one billion Canadian dollars ($688 million) worth of US alcohol products each year, Ford said. The LCBO’s website was down Tuesday, with a notice saying the store was removing “US products in response to US tariffs on Canadian goods.”
In Quebec, the government said it was ordering the provincial alcohol distributor “to stop supplying American alcoholic beverages” to stores, bars, and restaurants. Manitoba’s Premier Wab Kinew posted: “We are taking US alcohol off the shelves.”
The provincial government in British Columbia said its liquor distributor would “stop buying American liquor from ‘red states’,” those that voted for Trump’s Republican Party.
© 2024 AFP
