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在线翻译:
szdaily -> World Economy -> 
Trump’s trade battles slow Kentucky’s bourbon boom
    2019-05-06  08:53    Shenzhen Daily

JUST a few months ago, Kentucky bourbon was taking the world by storm.

Long a quaint drink for grandfathers, the quintessentially American spirit made with local corn and the bluegrass region’s almost mythical limestone water at last was a hit with bar goers in Madrid, Tokyo, London, Sydney, Paris, Warsaw and Berlin.

Hipster nostalgia revived the thirst for age-old bourbon and rye cocktails from the American South and the Jazz Age, like the Manhattan, the Old Fashioned, the Sazerac and the Mint Julep.

Distillers poured billions into new production, promotion and hiring.

“The biggest problem in the last few years has been that we can’t make it fast enough,” said Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers Association.

But then, in the middle of last year, came U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade wars.

To retaliate for stinging new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, Mexico, Canada, China and the European Union slapped import duties on American whiskies, causing soaring export growth to crash.

Turkey raised tariffs on all U.S. spirits to 140 percent from zero.

After soaring 28 percent in the first six months of 2018, whiskey exports fell 11 percent in the second half, a period including Christmas and New Year’s, when demand for liquor typically rises, according to the Distilled Spirits Council.

Kentucky produces 95 percent of the world’s bourbon and the industry has been growing by double digits for years, Gregory said.

“I don’t think anybody thought this was going to be a long-term issue,” he said. “We’re continuing to get nervous, anxious, skittish, whatever adjective you want to use.”

Unlike the iconic motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson, which announced last year it would offshore some production to get around EU tariffs, the bourbon industry cannot simply side-step the tariffs because by law bourbon cannot be made outside the United States, he said.

It was no coincidence that U.S. trade partners targeted U.S. whiskies, and bourbon in particular.

Distilling is among the state’s proudest job generators, employing an estimated 20,000 workers and creating US$8.6 billion in annual economic output, making the sting of the tariffs especially acute, according to the distillers association.

The sudden drop in exports is a painful bump in the road, 25 years after the United States and the EU agreed to drop all tariffs on the trade in spirits.

(SD-Agencies)

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