US President Donald Trump has said he would remove the American tariff on Irish whiskey, announcing the decision on September 13 at the close of a two-day visit to Ireland.
He made the announcement on the 18th green at the Amgen Irish Open, played at his Doonbeg golf resort in County Clare, western Ireland. Minutes earlier he had presented the winner’s trophy to Irish golfer Shane Lowry.
Trump said he had discussed the duty with Taoiseach Micheál Martin and with Lowry, and that others had been pressing him on it.
“I am going to take the tariffs off Irish whiskey,” he told a cheering crowd.
He gave no date for the change. Whiskey distilled in the Republic of Ireland currently enters the United States at 10 per cent.
That rate is not specific to Ireland. It applies to European Union wine and spirits generally under the EU-US trade framework agreed in 2025, which capped most duties at 15 per cent before a revision in July covering 60 trading partners brought wine and spirits down to 10 per cent.
Trade policy is an exclusive competence of the European Commission, which negotiated that framework on behalf of all member states.
Because Irish whiskey is a single geographical indication covering the whole island, the change would also reach distillers in Northern Ireland. Those producers had been left out of the removal of duties on UK-made whisky earlier this year, as all-island supply chains meant much of their output counted as Irish, according to BBC News.
The Irish Whiskey Association welcomed the announcement. Its director, Eoin Ó Catháin, said: “Nothing exemplifies the US-Ireland trade relationship better than Irish whiskey.”
The association said it would keep pressing its EU and US counterparts for a return to zero-for-zero terms on all drinks exports.
Tánaiste and Finance Minister Simon Harris called it “a welcome announcement of economic significance”. He said it reflected 18 months of engagement with the US administration.
The American market is worth between €400 million and €420 million a year to the sector. It took 38 per cent of Irish whiskey exports in 2025, down from 49 per cent in 2023, on Bord Bia figures cited by the association.
Irish distillers had cut back sharply under the duty, many pausing production during 2025.
The tariff announcement was not the main takeaway from the trip. Trump used both days to back Irish unification, saying it would be natural to put Ireland and Northern Ireland together and dismissing the diplomatic reaction as routine.
He met Martin in Dublin on September 12 and also saw Irish President Catherine Connolly.
Ireland holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union until the end of December.
