Irish whiskey producers north and south of the border fret over US tariffs

AFP English

For an Irish whiskey producer in the town of Dundalk, near the UK border with Northern Ireland, tariffs of 20 percent on EU alcoholic drinks are an unexpected "curve ball". But for competitors across the border, the tariff rate is just 10 percent. "Distilleries in the north of Ireland have an advantage. And in business, when you have an advantage, you take advantage," says whiskey producer Tony Healy.

Transcript

00:00The U.S. market would be a key market for our whisky. We've based our whisky on a family

00:13brand and we're tapping into the diaspora of the U.S. Irish immigrant. So, you know,

00:20it's some place that we always aspired to export to and we're just in the beginnings of all of

00:28that and now we're dealing with this 20% tariff. So, it's a curveball.

00:33The Northern Ireland thing has a bit of an impact because they have a 10% advantage.

00:54From Southern Ireland now and Europe. So, of course, that's going to make things a little

01:09bit more difficult because the distilleries rather in the north of Ireland, they have an

01:15advantage. And in business, when you have an advantage, you take advantage.

01:20It's a 10% tariff is no near as bad as we had initially thought. Things could have been

01:45much worse. Our own partners just across the border here on this island have been hit twice

01:52twice as badly as we have.

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