While holding a wine festival with the U.S. as a theme region could likely not come at a worse time, the Vancouver International Wine Festival (VIWF), which raises money for Bard on the Beach, has been spared a worst-case scenario.
Of 121 wineries set to take part in the nine-day extravaganza that starts Feb. 22, 50 are from the U.S. That includes 43 from California, four from Oregon and three from Washington state. Those three states all have Democratic leadership and they will therefore be spared from B.C.'s wide-ranging ban on most U.S. alcohol sales in the province.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday levied 25-per-cent tariffs on all Canadian imports, except for energy, which carries a 10-per-cent tariff. He said the tariffs were in response to migrants and fentanyl illegally crossing the border.
B.C. responded hours later.
B.C. Premier David Eby said part of B.C.'s response to those tariffs would be to have the British Columbia Liquor Distribution Branch (BCLDB) stop buying alcohol from so-called "red" or Republican states.
All legal alcohol sales in B.C. must flow through the BCLDB, which buys and then resells the alcohol to wholesalers with a mark-up in price.
A BCLDB memo obtained by BIV defined red states as being ones "governed by Republican leadership."
Eby added in his Saturday speech to media that "liquor store employees will be removing the most popular of these [U.S.] brands from government-store shelves."
Those brands include whiskeys, such as Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam and Bulleit bourbon, as well as Bacardi rum and Tito's vodka, according to the BCLDB memo.
Other U.S. alcohol from red states is being left on government-store shelves until inventory is gone. Those products will also be available for restaurants and bars to purchase until the inventory runs out, according to the memo.
Tariffs to hit U.S. wines
The wineries from California, Oregon and Washington states that attend the VIWF will, however, have to deal with an obstacle to selling their wines to the public.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke on Saturday about a couple hours after Eby, and said Canada would retaliate with 25-per-cent tariffs against U.S. goods. Trudeau named wine as one of the categories that would be included in Canada's retaliatory tariffs. So, while the U.S. wines will be available for sale at the VIWF's on-site liquor store, they will be priced higher than competing wine from around the world.
Here is a link to the full list of U.S. products that carry Canada's 25-per-cent retaliatory tariff.
BIV recently crunched numbers to determine that U.S. wine sales comprised about 11.65 per cent of the $1,099,417,854 that local wholesale customers spent on all wine in the year up to the end of September. That includes wholesale buying from restaurants, pubs, bars, restaurants, government stores and private stores.
No one from the VIWF was available for an interview. Instead it sent a statement saying that the ban and tariffs would not affect any of its events.
The festival has run each year since 1979 except for 2021, when pandemic-era restrictions made holding the festival impossible.
