B.C. Premier David Eby said Tuesday he’s looking at a ban on buying U.S. liquor, as a form of retaliation against the tariffs on Canadian goods threatened by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Eby said B.C. is perhaps only second behind Ontario as the country’s biggest importer of American alcohol, and it could be an effective way to hit back against what he calls unjustified tariffs.
“The government of British Columbia liquor stores are one of the biggest purchasers,” he noted.
“As a result, our decision not to buy American alcohol would definitely send a message,” he said Tuesday while addressing the media in front of the Port of Vancouver, which allows the flow of $300 billion in trade, he added.
Eby reiterated he supports the federal government’s plan to implement retaliatory tariffs if Trump’s administration does indeed go ahead with the 25 per cent tariffs he’s threatened.
“We’re going to stand up, we’re going to respond to tariffs, and keep in mind this is not a fight that we wanted, it’s not a fight that we picked, and in fact, we think this is going to hurt Americans as badly as it does Canadians,” he said.
The premier acknowledged that trade rules ordinarily require B.C. to purchase U.S. booze, but the implementation of tariffs by Trump would flip the script on those rules. He also doubled down on his pledge to keep everything on the table in the fight against the threatened tariffs, which he says could cost the province 124,000 jobs.
“Using targeted tariffs, using non tariff responses, like refusing to buy American alcohol products, are absolutely on the table for British Columbia and they are tools that we could use,” said Eby.
“In ordinary times, we can’t use them, we have trade agreements with the Americans, that we have to treat their products like our own, but if they’re not going to abide by our trade agreements, then neither are we.”
