Government Affairs

President Donald Trump launched a trade war today with the United States’ North American trade partners, Canada and Mexico, implementing 25% tariffs on goods imported from each country. Trump also doubled existing duties on goods from China to 20%.

Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill that would expand beer and wine sales licenses to the state’s grocery, convenience, mass retail and warehouse stores. However, House Bill 1379 “faced tough questioning in committee and faces a tough road to passage in the House,” Maryland Matters reported, citing a nearly three-hour debate over it last week.

Days after the former U.S. surgeon general called for cancer risk warning labels to be placed on alcoholic beverages, two state Legislatures are considering bills that would expand cancer warnings for bev-alc consumers.

A U.S. Surgeon General advisory issued today called for adding cancer risk to health warning labels on alcoholic beverages and called for “a reassessment of the guideline limits for alcohol consumption to account for cancer risk.”

The first of two major reports that will inform the 2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans’ alcohol consumption recommendations has found that moderate drinking is better than not drinking for certain health issues.

The Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies this week terminated the proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement that was initially announced more than two years ago, after a federal judge sided with the Federal Trade Commission suing to block the deal and Washington and Oregon state courts put permanent injunctions in place to halt the transaction.

Constellation Brands its weighing its options in the face of proposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from Mexico and Canada under the incoming second Trump administration. CFO Garth Hankinson discussed the company’s position during a fireside chat with managing director Dara Mohsenian at the Morgan Stanley Consumer and Retail Conference on Tuesday.

President-elect Donald Trump promised to impose 25% tariffs on all imported goods from Mexico and Canada and an additional 10% tariff on products from China beginning January 20, his first day in office.

Beverage-alcohol industry trade groups didn’t hold back in their feedback to the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD) about recent changes to the process by which the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) evaluates alcohol’s place in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

Recent research about the health impacts of alcohol has been circulating in mainstream media, amid a broader conversation about consumption as the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) works toward publishing its 2025-2030 guidelines.

The Brewers Association (BA) is prioritizing legislative efforts that widen craft brewers’ market access as the segment faces a challenging sales environment and narrowing distribution routes, BA general counsel Marc Sorini said during a presentation at the Craft Brewers Conference (CBC) last month in Las Vegas.

A pair of alcohol-adjacent bills have been introduced in the Colorado Legislature. One (SB24-181) seeks to create a tax on beverage-alcohol products distributed in the state to fund “alcohol and related substance use disorder prevention, early intervention, treatment, harm reduction and recovery services” across Colorado.

California craft breweries may soon have an easier time selling their beer at special events beyond their taproom walls, thanks to the California Craft Brewers Association’s (CCBA) sponsored bill in 2024. AB 2174 would “authorize a licensed beer manufacturer to apply for, and the department to issue, a beer caterer’s permit for the sale of beer manufactured by or for the licensee for consumption at specified locations and events, including, among others, conventions, sporting events, and trade exhibits.”

A controversial Tennessee bill to ban the sale of cold beer has been withdrawn. A bill to permit time-bound price discounts on alcohol beverages at on-premise retailers has passed both houses of the Indiana Legislature.