Jack Daniel’s faces another Canadian hurdle

Saskatchewan added a 50% levy on U.S.-made alcohol Sept. 8, adding another obstacle for Tennessee whiskey in Canada

3:07 p.m. Sept. 9, 2026

DUANE CROSS
MCO Publisher•Editor

Canada did not slap a new nationwide tariff on Jack Daniel’s on Tuesday. The squeeze was already there.

Canada’s Sept. 8 measures were retaliation for new U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods. For Tennessee whiskey, though, the trouble started long before this week.

Jack Daniel’s and other U.S. whiskeys have carried a 25% Canadian tariff since March 2025, when Ottawa retaliated against earlier U.S. trade measures. More damaging has been what happened beyond the border: liquor authorities across most Canadian provinces pulled American spirits from their shelves and quit ordering more.

For Jack Daniel’s, those are two very different problems.

A tariff makes a bottle more expensive. Pull it from the shelf, and there is no sale to make.

That was the warning Brown-Forman President and CEO Lawson Whiting gave in March 2025. Whiting, who announced in July that he plans to retire once Brown-Forman names his successor, called the provincial action “worse than a tariff” because it was taking away sales altogether.

Canada was already a hard market

U.S. spirits exports to Canada fell 70% after the provincial restrictions took hold, dropping from $203 million between March and December 2024 to $60 million during the same stretch in 2025, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. American whiskey exports worldwide declined 19% in 2025.

In June, Brown-Forman said the absence of American-made alcohol from shelves across most Canadian provinces hurt its developed international business. Jack Daniel’s ready-to-drink portfolio was among the businesses affected.

For Jack Daniel’s, Canada had gone from a nearby export market to one where much of the front door was locked.

Alberta and Saskatchewan eventually reopened their markets to U.S. spirits, becoming the only two Canadian provinces to lift the bans. Now Saskatchewan has raised the cost of getting back into that market.

Saskatchewan adds another cost

Beginning Sept. 8, Saskatchewan imposed a 50% levy on U.S.-origin alcohol imported into the province.

American whiskey can still be sold there, but Saskatchewan has made it a good bit more expensive to compete.

Saskatchewan is the sixth-most populous of Canada’s 10 provinces, with about 1.27 million people. It is not one of the country’s biggest liquor markets, but it matters because it was one of the few provinces that had reopened to American spirits.

The levy applies to U.S.-made alcohol ordered by retailers through the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority. The province announced the move after the United States imposed a 50% tariff on Canadian alcohol Aug. 22.

Local alcohol producers in Saskatchewan have been plain about what they expect. Higher prices on American bottles should make Canadian-made products more attractive to shoppers.

Sherwood Co-op CEO Troy Verboom said the levy is “going to drive those prices up on the retail shelf,” while Saskatchewan distillers have encouraged consumers to buy closer to home.

For Jack Daniel’s, the problem now depends on where the bottle is headed. In much of Canada, access remains the issue. In Saskatchewan, where access had returned, price has become the new headache.

What changed Sept. 8 – and what did not

Canada also put a broader package of counter-tariffs into effect Sept. 8, covering $27.6 billion in U.S. imports. Those new duties range from 15% to 50% and fall heavily on steel, dairy goods, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, plastics, and electronics.

Whiskey was not newly added to that federal package.

Canada’s tariff schedule still lists U.S. whiskey at 25%, effective March 4, 2025. Saskatchewan’s 50% levy is a separate provincial measure on American alcohol entering that market.

So the Sept. 8 change did not create Jack Daniel’s problem in Canada. It showed how hard that problem may be to unwind.

Saskatchewan was one of the few Canadian markets that had reopened to American spirits. Now the bottles can still get there, but they arrive carrying another handicap against the Canadian whiskey sitting beside them.

Whiting’s warning has numbers behind it

When Whiting called the Canadian shelf removals “worse than a tariff” in 2025, it was a warning from a chief executive watching a trade dispute spill directly into sales.

U.S. distillers did not merely lose a little margin in Canada. Their exports cratered after the shelf restrictions began, while American spirits exports excluding Canada grew 2.5% in 2025.

Whiting warned in 2025 that taking American whiskey off Canadian shelves was worse than a tariff. The sales numbers have borne that out. Saskatchewan had reopened the shelf; now it has raised the cost of getting onto it.