International trade agreements have been crucial to the success of Irish whiskey abroad, according to the Irish Whiskey Association‘s inaugural international trade report.

In 2020, 11.4 million cases (137 million bottles of Irish whiskey) were sold around the world.

Although this was a slight decrease on 2019, it still exceeded expectations due to the challenging year of Covid-19.

Published today (June 1), Irish Whiskey Global sets out how whiskey exports have benefited from recent positive developments on the international trade front including:

  • The lifting of the 25% US tariff on Northern Irish single malts;
  • Further reductions in recent months to Canadian provincial levies on Irish whiskey as a result of the CETA agreement, with an overall 66% growth in sales in Canada from 2017-2020 supported by CETA;
  • New protections for the Irish whiskey geographical indication (GI) as a result of EU bilateral agreements with China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Vietnam;
  • The elimination, or phasing out, of tariffs across the Southern African Development Community and in other markets including Colombia, South Korea and Vietnam as a result of EU trade deals; and in Australia (for Northern Irish whiskey) as a result of the new UK trade agreement.

The report was jointly launched by Minister of State with responsibility for Trade Promotion at the Department of Enterprise, Robert Troy, and the UK’s Minister for Exports, Graham Stuart.

In it, a range of policy objectives to support future international trade for Irish whiskey were outlined.

These include:

  • A permanent end to all transatlantic trade disputes, building on recent positive developments;
  • Reform of both the rules-of-origin for whiskey and territoriality rules in all EU and UK trade agreements to protect and facilitate the Irish whiskey industry’s cross-border supply chain on the island of Ireland;
  • Inclusion of tariff reductions in both EU and UK trade negotiations with India;
  • Elimination of outstanding discriminatory levies and mark-ups in in Canada;
  • Ratification of the CETA agreement by Dáil Éireann and conclusion and ratification of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement;
  • Expansion of tariff-free trade to more African markets and progression of trade agreement negotiations with Thailand;
  • Facilitation of spirits e-commerce in future trade agreements.
IRISH WHISKEY TRADE AGREEMENTS