US administration confirms that 25% tariff on aluminium will impact all beer exporters to the US

In its recent announcement of the introduction of global tariffs, the Trump Administration confirmed that it will be imposing a 25% tariff on all canned imported beer and empty aluminum cans, and not just those from Mexico and Canada.

In a Federal Register notice from the US Department of Commerce filed hours before the President’s tariffs announcement, the administration updated the initial February 10 notice on aluminum tariffs, which goes into effect on 4 April “effective with respect to goods entered for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouses for consumption.”

Canned products account for nearly 40% of US beer imports, or 16.1 million barrels, according to US Department of Commerce data. Bottled beer, which is also impacted by the new tariffs, account for about 56.4% of imports, with draft beer accounting for the remainder.

President Trump has also announced a 10% baseline tariff on all imports coming into the US, but many Asian countries including Cambodia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam, all face much higher rates of 24% or above. At the time of writing, it is unclear whether these will be in addition to the 25% aluminum tariffs.

What is clear is that in the updated notice, both “beer” and “empty aluminum cans” have been added to a list of derivative products subject to the 25% aluminum tariffs that went into effect. The notice, however, only lists the tariff code for beer made from malt and “makes no mention of a subordinate code for beer imports in glass containers,” according to a Reuters report.

What is clear is that the impact is likely to impact beer exporters to the US everywhere. With the cost of increase on aluminum, US brewers could also see overall input costs increase. Retaliatory tariffs by Asian countries and the duration of the new tariffs remain uncertain, however, making the US market for Asian brewers increasingly challenging in the foreseeable future.