First Minister John Swinney recently flew across the Atlantic to beg Donald Trump to reverse a
flagship policy that the SNP put an extraordinary amount of effort into securing at Holyrood and the courts. Swinney headed to the White House to appeal to Trump to remove or reduce the 10 per cent tariff he imposed on Scotch whisky, and other spirits, imported into the USA.

Ironically, the notion of raising the price of alcoholic beverages to discourage its consumption was brought in by the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act 2012, which provided a £125 million boost to the profits of retailers and was fought tooth and mail by the Scotch Whisky
Association (SWA) until the Supreme Court finally approved of it.

Swinney also advocates a “zero-for-zero” tariffs policy that would ease the flow of Jack Daniels and Rebel Yell (and their empty barrels, essential for whisky’s maturation) to Britain. This amateur diplomacy (which occurred when Starmer had problems with his own representative to the USA) has yet to bear any fruit, but it is possible a bit of fawning by those more exalted that Swinney during Trump’s state visit will do the trick.

The SWA claims the tariff is costing them £4 million every week. Some of the smaller distilleries
have already cut back but new ones are opening. At present the USA is the largest whisky export market, but India and Japan are catching up. Sales to China have declined recently as they are getting in on the act. Whisky Magazine informs us there are more than 40 distilleries “from the mist-laden mountains of Sichuan to the coastal stretches of Zhejiang”, and reports enthusiastically on their quality.

As is the time-honoured custom, the SWA blames the Chancellor of the Exchequer for using
the spirits industry as a cash cow for the industry’s alleged woes. After last year’s Budget its CEO deplored the rise in duty, complaining that it “increases the tax discrimination of Scotland’s national drink”. Going by the types of bottles in this correspondent’s front garden, it would, however, appear that Scotland’s national drink is Buckfast – the fortified wine from the Devonshire Benedictine abbey affectionately known as “wreck-the-hoose juice”.