Export slump deepens for American whiskey producer

[jpak]

https://www.pressherald.com/2019/03/21/export-slump-deepens-for-american-whiskey-producers/

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — American whiskey producers are suffering a worsening hangover from the Trump administration’s trade disputes.

Overall exports of bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey fell 11 percent during the second half of 2018 compared to the prior-year period, as the impact of tariffs started to be felt, the Distilled Spirits Council said in a report Thursday. The drop off was even larger in the European Union, the industry’s biggest export market.

Last month, the council said total American whiskey exports declined by 8.2 percent between July and November of 2018, but that report did not include December numbers.

“With the full-year data in hand, it is clear that the retaliatory tariffs are having a significant and growing impact on American whiskey exports,” council President and CEO Chris Swonger said in a release. “The damage to American whiskey exports is now accelerating, and this is collateral damage from ongoing global trade disputes.”

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[RHMerriman]

1. Kentuckians are getting what they voted for...

aren't they?

[Wounded Bear]

2. Are they still loving the Don and Mitch show?

[RHMerriman]

3. Kentucky and Tennessee could be interesting in 2020...

Both have increasingly mixed economies (goods and services), and Tennessee has actually done better in terms of economic growth than the US as a whole (Kentucky has done worse), but the bright spots in Tennessee's economy are very dependent on international trade, which plays a larger role in Tennessee than in similarly sized states, with exports to Canada, Mexico, and China approaching $200 billion in 2017-2018. In addition, more than 150,000 Tennesseans work for foreign-owned companies. US tariffs on aluminum and steel are particularly costly for Tennessee’s machinery, automobile, and auto part manufacturers. In Kentucky, the Administration's trade policy (as witness the story about the distillery industry suffering) and slowing global growth filter is likely to moderate growth over the course of 2019.

Neither state is doing THAT well, actually, even with McConnell, Paul, and similar decision-makers being in positions where one would think they could influence the Administration. Both have terrible infant mortality rates, for example - Kentucky is 6.5 per 1000 live births and Tennessee is 7.4. Tennessee is actually in the bottom five, right there with Alabama and Oklahoma.

[link:https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/infant_mortality_rates/infant_mortality.htm|]

The US as a whole is 5.8 per 1000. The states with the lowest IM rates are all northern or western states, and (almost exclusively) "Blue"...

which says a lot about which states actually value life, but that's a different question.

[safeinOhio]

4. Just bought a bottle

of Canadian Club.."This is the whisky that started it all. Originally created in 1858, it was a global phenomenon before the turn of the century even began."

[RHMerriman]

5. I buy Irish, because a) it's tasty, and b) to honor the 50 percent of Ireland's population

I buy Irish, because a) it's tasty, and b) to honor the 50 percent of Ireland's population who died or left the British Isles in the 1840s and 1850s because of English rule.

The Irish have long memories...