California Senator Adam Schiff is turning up the heat on Quebec, personally appealing to the province’s premier to end a months-long freeze on American wine imports the latest flashpoint in a growing transatlantic dispute over Canadian liquor restrictions that is costing U.S. producers hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a letter sent to Quebec Premier Christine Fréchette on June 24, Schiff argued that California’s wine industry is being unfairly squeezed by policies driven by a trade war that the state had no hand in starting. “Canada’s boycott of California wine is causing devastating harm to winegrowers,” the senator wrote, reposting his remarks on X on July 9. He called on the Canadian government to acknowledge that California stands apart from Washington’s tariff agenda and urged the province to restore consumer access to American bottles in order to benefit both economies.
The stakes are considerable. Canada was the single largest destination for American wine in 2024, absorbing 36 percent of all U.S. wine exports a market worth roughly US$460 million according to the California-based Wine Institute. By 2025, that figure had already slipped by 12 percent, a trend industry groups warn could accelerate if the restrictions hold.
The ban on American alcohol did not emerge in a vacuum. A string of Canadian provincial liquor boards moved to stop importing U.S. spirits, wine, and beer last year in direct response to tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on Canadian goods, as well as his repeated suggestions that Canada might one day become the “51st state.” The move was widely seen as one of the more tangible and symbolically resonant forms of economic pushback available to provincial governments.
Alberta and Saskatchewan have since reversed course and resumed stocking American products. But Ontario and Quebec Canada’s two largest provinces by population have held firm, drawing mounting frustration from U.S. lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Schiff was not alone in writing to Fréchette. Earlier in June, a bipartisan coalition of 14 California state legislators sent her a joint letter also pressing for a reversal. “Québec consumers have historically enjoyed access to a wide variety of American wines, and their absence limits choice in the marketplace, while cutting off a $434 million market,” the group stated.
On the Republican side, New York Congresswoman Claudia Tenney announced on July 6 that she intends to introduce legislation in the House she is calling the Combating Attacks on our National Alcoholic Drinks by Allies Act the CANADA Act, as it is styled. The bill would trigger a Section 301 investigation under the Trade Act of 1974 into the provincial liquor board bans. If investigators determine that unfair trade practices occurred, the legislation would open the door for the U.S. Trade Representative to impose retaliatory tariffs and other countermeasures.
“Canadian provinces cannot be allowed to hold American wineries, breweries, and distilleries hostage and attempt to ransom them,” Tenney said in a statement.
Beyond wine, the broader damage to the U.S. alcohol sector has been steep. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States reported a 63 percent collapse in U.S. spirits exports to Canada in the span of a single year a figure that has sharpened calls for action from distillers, brewers, and vintners alike.
For now, neither Quebec nor Ontario appears ready to blink. A spokesperson for Premier Fréchette made the province’s position clear on July 10, stating that the measure would stay in place “as long as the United States maintains these unjustified tariffs,” and that any reconsideration would only come once Washington reverses course.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has echoed that stance. During a visit to Washington last month, Ford indicated that American alcohol would return to Ontario shelves only when U.S. tariffs are lifted and Trump’s annexation rhetoric is walked back. He further tied any resolution to the renewal of the Canada–United States–Mexico Agreement, known as CUSMA. When Tenney unveiled the CANADA Act, Ford pushed back directly: “We won’t back down. The fastest and only way to get U.S. alcohol back on Ontario shelves is for the U.S. to drop its illegal tariffs on Canada.”
That pathway may be narrowing. The Trump administration announced last week that it would not pursue a full 16-year renewal of CUSMA as Canada and Mexico had sought. Instead, Washington proposed a rolling annual review process that could stretch for up to a decade after which the agreement would lapse entirely if all three parties fail to agree on an extension.
With trade talks in flux and political positions hardening on both sides of the border, American winemakers are left waiting to see whether diplomacy or legislation can reopen the world’s most lucrative market for their product before the losses become permanent.
