Thousands of dried alcohol bottles. This could happen to 300,000 dollars of American alcohol with -Ancndenced in Quebec by decision of the Government, and that reach a deadline to the consumer, Radio Canada learned on Wednesday, August 20 of the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ).
The Quebec government requested the withdrawal of “entire American products” of sales in early February in response to the new customs tasks announced by Donald Trump. A total of 27 million dollars in American alcohols have retired from the sale in early March and since then they have been stored.
The alcohols affected by the possible destruction are pink wines, viniers, loans to laws, creams, certain beers and spirits. To avoid its destruction, the SAQ, a state company that has the monopoly of the sale of alcohol in Quebec, requested the right to sell them, but the government of the province rejected this request.
A 69.8% drop in US exports
“It is nonsense to exercise so much pressure on the SAQ to raise the maximum money to return to the state and at the same time put sticks on the wheels,” said Danick Saucy, president of the SAQ workers union.
Although the destruction of American products, which have already been paid by SAQ, represents a loss for cheese, the boycott of these products has strong repercussions on US exports on Quebec.
Exports from American alcohols to Canada have decreased by 96.8% since the beginning of the boycott, according to the American Wine Economist Association (AAWE). The other provinces of Canada, with the exception of Alberta and Saskatchewan, also boycott US products.
This drop in exports has a substantial impact on the American industry, being Canada the second market for exports of American spirits. Exports of American spirits have decreased by 66%, according to the Council of Destilled Spirits of the United States.
Losses transmitted to dividends paid to the State
The SAQ believes that destroying the American alcohols that would arrive in expiration time would be “unhappy”, but remember that “the final decision with respect to these products belongs to the government.”
For its part, the Government remembers that the SAQ is a state company and that consequences the possible losses could be absorbed by the dividends that the SAQ pays to the state of Quebec. “These are communicating vases between the Ministry and the dividend paid by the Board of the Crown,” said the communications director of the Minister of Finance Quebec.
Source: BFM TV
