Starting Tuesday, Ontario will remove all American alcohol from the shelves of its government-run liquor stores in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on Canadian imports. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) will also pull U.S. products from its catalog, preventing other retailers from ordering or restocking these items, as stated by Premier Doug Ford on Sunday.
“Each year, the LCBO sells nearly $1 billion worth of American wine, beer, spirits, and seltzers. That won’t be the case anymore,” Ford said. “Now is the perfect time to explore incredible Ontario-made and Canadian-made products.”
Ford made this announcement just hours after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau imposed retaliatory tariffs of 25% on $155 billion worth of U.S. goods.
The LCBO is one of the largest alcohol wholesalers in Ontario, selling over 1.1 billion liters of alcohol products in 2023. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, Canada primarily imports hard liquor from the U.S., with an estimated $320 million in sales. As of October 2024, Canada is the second-largest export destination for U.S. liquor, with a trade value of $25.9 million, according to the OEC.
In a statement to CNBC, the LCBO announced it will halt all sales of U.S. alcohol products both online and in stores “indefinitely,” noting that it serves as the “importer of record” for all American alcohol into Ontario. Currently, the LCBO offers more than 3,600 products from 35 U.S. states.
This action follows similar announcements from other Canadian premiers in retaliation to the tariffs, including Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, who has instructed the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation to remove all American alcohol from shelves starting Tuesday, and British Columbia Premier David Eby, who has directed the BC Liquor Distribution Branch to “immediately stop buying American liquor from ‘red states'” and remove top-selling brands from those states.
