Swinney urges Trump to exempt Scotch Whisky from US tariffs

Here we go again with the tariff merry-go-round. John Swinney’s gearing up to make his pitch to Trump about exempting Scotch whisky from those fresh 10% US tariffs that kicked in this month, and frankly, it’s about bloody time someone made this argument properly.

Look, the numbers tell the story here – we’re talking about nearly £1 billion in US sales for 2024 alone, making America our biggest and most valuable export market. But when those tariffs hit back in 2019, we watched exports plummet by 30%, wiping out over £600 million in sales until they were paused in 2021. The Scotch Whisky Association reckons the current tariffs are costing us north of £4 million every single week.

What’s particularly smart about Swinney’s approach is he’s leaning heavily on the geographic protection angle. “It can only be produced in Scotland. It’s not a product that can be produced in any other part of the world,” he’s saying, and that’s the crux of it, isn’t it? You can’t exactly shift production to dodge these tariffs – Scotch whisky is what it is precisely because of where it’s made.

The timing’s interesting too, with Trump making a private visit to Scotland. Swinney’s planning to make what he calls a “robust case” for the industry, working alongside the SWA and the UK Government. He’s particularly concerned about the smaller distilleries that rely heavily on American market access – those operations that can’t easily absorb these kinds of hits.

It’s classic trade politics really, but with Scotland’s most celebrated export hanging in the balance, there’s real substance behind the diplomatic niceties about “strengthening economic ties.” The industry’s been through this dance before, and everyone knows what’s at stake.