The Beer Institute “celebrated” Beer Can Appreciation Day (Jan. 24) by alleging that brewers still have to pay inflated prices for aluminum cans, more than six months after Canadian aluminum tariffs ended.
President Trump imposed a 10% tariff on aluminum imports from Canada, a major source of aluminum for beer packaging, in March 2018. The tariff was lifted last May, but the Beer Institute claims that mills are still charging a full “tariff-paid” premium on all the aluminum they process. As a result, according to the Institute, between March 2018 and July 2019, the American beverage industry paid an additional $458 million for aluminum, but the U.S. treasury only collected $73 million.
“As this analysis shows, rolling mills collected more than $300 million more because they are charging as if all of the aluminum they are using is tariffed, even though the vast majority is not,” says Beer Institute spokesperson Alex Davidson.
The Beer Institute has posted a video to Facebook deploring the situation facing brewer “Amber Ale.” “If skyrocketing aluminum prices continue to hurt Amber Ale and brewers like her, they may have to cut investments in their businesses, lay off workers or increase the price of beer,” the video says.
