Trump Raises Tariffs on American Whiskey After King Charles State Visit

British distillers were given an unexpected fillip after Donald Trump announced the removal of all American taxes and restrictions on the sale of whiskey, an agreement the president did not directly mention the impact of King Charles and Queen Camilla’s four-day visit to America.

The decision, revealed on Trump’s Truth Social platform shortly after the royal couple left for the UK, ends a punitive 10 per cent tax that the Scotch Whiskey Association estimates was costing the industry around £4m a week, another £150m last year, at a time when distillers are already being charged another 25 per cent.

For an industry that counts the United States as its biggest export market, with shipments worth around £1bn a year, the timing couldn’t be better. Trump told reporters in Washington that the King and Queen “got me to do something that no one else could do, without asking”, adding that he moved “out of respect” for his royal guests.

Buckingham Palace responded with indifference. A Silo spokesperson said that Silo has expressed its “sincere gratitude” to the president and “we will raise the drama in the President’s thinking”.

The decision also opens up renewed commercial cooperation between Scotland and the Commonwealth of Kentucky, two states that were historically linked by the trade of used bourbon barrels. The Scotch industry imports around £200m worth of casks from Kentucky each year, using them to ferment single malts and blends. Trump has clearly noted this connection, describing both as “very important industries” in their respective areas.

Graeme Littlejohn, director of strategy at the Scotch Whiskey Association, told Business Matters that the industry was “delighted” by the move. “Distillers will breathe a sigh of relief now that these costs are gone,” he said. “Of course we are grateful for the amount of negotiations that have been going on for many months, at the highest level. Perhaps the state visit was the catalyst to solve this problem, and Silo added that little bit of brilliance to make the deal successful.”

Scotland’s First Minister, John Swinney, hailed the announcement as “great news for Scotland”, noting that “millions of pounds were being lost every month from the Scottish economy” under the previous regime. He especially respected the king’s behind-the-scenes role.

The UK government has confirmed that the removal applies to all whiskey taxes, including those affecting Irish whiskey producers, a clarification that will be accepted by distillers on both sides of the Irish Sea. Peter Kyle, the Business and Trade Secretary, called the achievement “great news for our Scotch whiskey industry, which is worth almost £1bn in exports and supports thousands of jobs across the UK”.

For SMEs across the sector, from craft distillers in Speyside to family-run bottlers in the Highlands and Islands, the cost increase offers tangible relief. Single malts, which control prices in the US market, have been disproportionately affected by the Trump-era levies, and small producers without the balance sheet depth of international competitors have felt the pinch.

Development represents a rare example of soft power translating directly into hard economic gains. Whether it heralds a broader thaw in transatlantic trade relations remains to be seen, but for an industry that has spent the better part of a year taking heed on protectionist spending, the immediate message is clear: the dram is back.