President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he would remove the 10% tariff on Irish whiskey after golfer Shane Lowry and the Irish prime minister asked him to do it.
'Everybody's been bugging me,' Trump said during remarks at the Irish Open. 'They're saying, can you do me a favor? It's so unfair what's going on.' The crowd cheered after he said he would lift the tariff.
Trump put the 10% tariff in place in February as part of a temporary global tariff on most imports. Ireland's national public broadcaster said last year that about 45% to 50% of Irish whiskey is exported to the United States, making the US its biggest export market.
The Irish whiskey association said in May that the tariffs should be removed. It said reducing the tariff for Irish drinks would benefit many US companies with Irish premium products in their portfolios, avoid uncertainty for the US consumer, and strengthen the cask trade in Kentucky, Tennessee, and other US states.
Popular Irish whiskey brands include Jameson, Bushmills, Tullamore D.E.W., and Redbreast.
Trump has said his tariff policies are meant to rebalance what he calls unfair trade relations, jump-start American industry, and give the US leverage in international negotiations, including border security and drug trafficking. But his tariff policies in his second term have upended markets, thrown business for a loop, and strained relations with long-standing allies, most recently Canada. They have also landed his administration in legal trouble.
The business case here is straightforward: tariffs are a tax on trade, and taxes always show up somewhere in the price chain. If this one comes off, importers, retailers, and consumers get a little more breathing room, while the administration gives up one more lever it has been using to force concessions.
Founders should read this as another reminder that policy risk can move faster than supply chains. When trade rules can change on a golf course, margins, inventory planning, and customer pricing become a live political variable, not just a spreadsheet exercise.
