Advocating for the federal government to untangle distilled spirits from tariff policy was the major theme at the annual Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. (DISCUS) conference in Washington, D.C., last week.
With the spirits industry going into another year of soft sales, the focus of the conference dove into navigating moderation trends and possible changes to the alcohol consumption recommendations in the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Concerns over another difficult year ahead come against a backdrop of a trade war that may escalate next week.
Tariffs: Uncertainty Looms Over Industry
DISCUS is “working hard” with other trade associations and North American trading partners to carve out a tariff exception for bev-alc, according to DISCUS president and CEO Chris Swonger.
The emerging trade war is attacking the industry from all sides. Much is pending on a sweep of tariffs scheduled to be enacted by the Trump administration on April 2 on partners around the globe, with plans for additional tariffs on auto imports hitting the same day. Trump has also threatened to add tariffs to European wine, spirits and other alcohol products by 200%. Tariffs on Canadian and Mexican products are also scheduled to return April 2, although have now been delayed twice.
“April 2 is going to be unique, and then we’ll see what happens,” said Swonger.
Once the scope of the next tariffs is revealed, the EU commission will determine what retaliatory tariffs to unfurl on the U.S., with whiskey and possibly other alcoholic beverages in the crosshairs. That process should conclude by mid-April, according to Peter Young, Minister-Counsellor of the European Union Delegation to the U.S., who spoke on a panel.
“I think the message, which has come very plainly from political leaders in Europe, is that the U.S. measures, once we understand exactly what their scope is or what their nature is, there’s a likelihood of a firm and proportion of response,” Young said.
Meanwhile, Carlos Vazquez, minister for agricultural affairs for the Embassy of Mexico, reminded the audience that U.S. imports of tequila and mezcal exceeded $5 billion in 2024, and an interruption could have a ripple effect on the 100,000 direct and indirect jobs tequila production generates.
But Jason Hafemeister, acting deputy under secretary for trade and foreign agricultural affairs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, touted the Trump administration’s line that the objective of the so-called reciprocal tariffs is to “level the playing field.”
“We see barriers wherever we go, and for us, this frequently comes down to the question of leverage,” he said. “How do we get another country to take our concerns seriously when we address unfair practices?”
On Thursday, about 150 attendees at the conference responded to the new trade policies by meeting with congressional representatives to lobby for the continuation of zero-for-zero tariffs on distilled spirits, as well as for transparency about the process to determine the next set of Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).
Dietary Guidelines for Americans: “We Can’t Get It Wrong”
An updated DGA is published every five years, and a new process to evaluate alcohol’s place in the DGA this round has drawn ire from industry trade groups. The two reports that will inform the guidelines reached different conclusions about the impact of alcohol consumption on health. DISCUS leadership and panelists argued that one of the reports, conducted by the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) have involved scientists biased against alcohol, and with expertise in the prevention of underage drinking, but not adult alcohol consumption.
It should be noted that although the USDA guidelines have come under scrutiny before, it’s been specifically concerning the influence of the lobbying efforts of big alcohol and food.
U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, who represents Kentucky’s bourbon-heavy 3rd Congressional District, told the audience that the DGA guides policymakers as well as physicians, emphasizing that “we can’t get it wrong.”
A press release earlier this month from Brooke Rollins, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, stated that the DGA update is on track for release December 31, 2025.
Congress is unlikely to be able to provide more clarification on the process now, as McGarvey added that the recent Republican spending legislation “took out a lot of our power as legislators to pass certain things.”
“What you see is us continuing to demand the best science, to continue to demand the best transparency, the best expertise on this, and hopefully we see HHS [Health and Human Services] come to the right conclusions, because this is a big deal,” he said.