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Today, the Beer Institute, the oldest national trade organisation representing the beer industry, reacted to the release of the U.S. International Trade Commission’s (ITC) newest report showing that U.S. companies, rather than China, bore the brunt of costs imposed by Section 232 tariffs on aluminium.
Brian Crawford, president and CEO of the Beer Institute, said, “Today’s ITC report confirms what brewers have known since March of 2018: Section 232 tariffs on aluminium punish American job creators by increasing production costs, which ultimately trickle down to higher prices for consumers.
These tariffs have cost the American beverage industry more than $1.7 billion since their enactment and have failed to create the significant number of jobs that were promised. We hope this report will discourage new tariffs on domestic manufacturers and encourage the Biden Administration to repeal Section 232 tariffs on aluminium and deliver relief for job creators and consumers.”
This report by the ITC comes on the heels of the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) ruling in December of 2022 that by invoking national security concerns when imposing Section 232 tariffs on aluminium, global trade rules were violated.
The Beer Institute and its counterpart associations in the American beverage industry have been vocal about the impact that Section 232 tariffs have had on American brewers and beverage companies.
Earlier this month, Crawford penned an opinion piece in Bloomberg Tax detailing the harmful effects of aluminium tariffs on the beer industry.
In July of last year, the CEOs of America’s biggest brewers sent a letter to President Biden urging him to lift Section 232 tariffs on aluminium.
