Japanese Beer Company Drops Canada To Brew Some Products in America

It was a win in the trade skirmish with Canada, the White House and Treasury Secretary said this week.By this time next year, Japan’s Sapporo Breweries announced, it will have moved its alcohol-free brewing operations south from Canada into the United States.“Japan really is America’s greatest ally,” Kangmin Lee, a conservative host and content creator, said on X.“If I were the Canadians, I would be careful because they wanted the benefits of being a state without being a state,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “And now that the arrangements may be splintering, everyone is going to come to our side.”“Made in America” read an X post from the official White House account. The image in the post showed several cans of Sapporo Premium beer.Yet numbers released by Sleeman Breweries, which owns the Ontario facility that’s facing relocation, tell a different story.Sleeman says the move would impact production only of the Sapporo nonalcoholic beer that’s brewed in Canada for sale in the United States. That represents about 0.5 percent of the beer Sleeman produces in Canada. Virtually all of the Sapporo beer brewed in Canada is distributed in that country, the spokesperson told CTV News.With President Trump hitting America’s neighbor to the north with 50 percent tariffs on goods from dairy to hockey sticks to beer and perfume – and Canada hitting right back – brewers are one industry among many wondering how the trade fight may affect their bottom lines.Both sides say publicly they’d prefer to make a deal — if only on their own terms. And it’s exactly that fluid situation that’s led Sapporo to clarify it may not pull the trigger on a move.“The relocation of Sapporo 0.0% production for the U.S. market from Sleeman Breweries’ Canadian facilities to Sapporo USA’s U.S. facilities is not imminent or finalized,” the spokesperson for Sleeman Breweries said in a statement to CTV.Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, this week implemented retaliatory tariffs on American dairy, golf clubs, steel, aluminum and other items. On Wednesday, President Trump escalated, vowing to ban imports of Canadian alcohol, molasses, motorcycles and more.Conservatives in Ottawa and Democrats in Washington both decried the tariff fight and urged both nations to go back to negotiating.“We need to get back to tariff-free trade in both directions,” Pierre Poilievre, leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, said on CNBC Thursday morning. “Canadians are united in our mission to fight the tariffs.”On Wednesday, Democratic senators Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire; Chris Coons of Delaware; Patty Murray of Washington state; Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota; and Elissa Slotkin of Michigan released a joint statement slamming the president for the new tariffs.“They will raise the cost of the lumber, plywood and construction equipment we need to build new housing,” the Democrats wrote. “They will hurt our workers and businesses who manufacture autos, aircraft and machinery. They will drive up the prices consumers pay for everyday basics like milk, clothing and paper products.”Sapporo’s chief strategy officer, Reiko Shofu, told Bloomberg the tariffs were “something out of our control.” Ms. Shofu said the beer company is also interested in adding manufacturing capacity on the West Coast.Yet last month, Sapporo announced it was shutting down its plant in Escondido, California.Dozens of people will lose their jobs, NBC7 San Diego reported, as part of a “phased wind-down” of the plant. The plant is operated by Stone Brewing Company, which has not yet found a new buyer for its beer.The 22-ounce versions of Sapporo Premium beer are brewed in Vietnam.

Japanese Beer Company Drops Canada To Brew Some Products in America

Japanese Beer Company Drops Canada To Brew Some Products in America

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