Trump Bans Canadian Beer, Wine, Motorcycles, and More

Seemingly no longer content to merely hike taxes on imports from Canada, President Donald Trump has now taken the next logical step in his war against free trade.

On Tuesday, the White House announced that dozens of Canadian products would be banned from entering the United States, starting later this month.

The import ban covers a range of alcoholic drinks, motorcycles, various types of molasses, and some dairy byproducts like whey. The ban was accompanied by a new set of tariffs targeting Canadian motorboats and engine equipment, as well as cheese and other dairy products.

In short, the latest escalation of the pointless trade war with Canada means that Americans will no longer have the option of paying a hefty tax for the opportunity to import Canadian beer, wine, or liquor. That choice has now been revoked by the whim of one man—who is determined to substitute his own preferences for the free will of American businesses and consumers, the vast majority of whom do not quarrel with their trading partners on the northern side of the border.

The import ban comes just days after Trump told reporters that America would be wealthier if it did not trade with Canada at all. “If we end all trade with Canada, we’d save ourselves $90 billion,” Trump claimed. “If we were playing hardball, all we’d do is say that we’re doing no trading with Canada.”

That is utterly nonsensical. For one, it is not the United States that trades with Canada. It is Americans and Canadians trading with one another, and those transactions should not require the approval of political leaders in either country.

It also misunderstands the value of trade to both parties. If I refuse to go to the grocery store, I might save some money that I would have otherwise spent, but I am not wealthier. Trump’s fixation on the trade deficit is even more misguided here, because the U.S. has historically run a trade surplus with Canada, as long as you leave aside gasoline and other energy products.

Outright banning the importation of Canadian goods is such an outlandish development that it might obscure how foolish this entire trade war has been.

Go all the way back to where this conflict started. Just weeks after returning to office in 2025, Trump levied new tariffs on Canada (along with Mexico and China). Officially, those tariffs were meant to combat the illegal flow of fentanyl into the United States. Just one problem: Very little fentanyl is imported from Canada—and how, exactly, were tariffs on legal imports supposed to stop the flow of illegal ones?

“There was almost nothing Canada could do to eliminate fentanyl manufacturing or stop exports of fentanyl, because they basically didn’t have a fentanyl trade to stop in the first place,” writes Justin Wolfers, a University of Michigan economist, in his newsletter. “So from Canada’s perspective—and from reality’s perspective—this was an arbitrary set of tariffs imposed because of something they hadn’t done.”

In the months since, Trump has used Canada’s various responses to those tariffs as justification for further escalations. In the process, he’s torn up the trade deal that he negotiated—and called his “best deal”—during his first term and forced Americans to bear the cost of the conflict.

A trade war that was started under false pretenses now continues spiraling into absurdity.

Cutting off Americans’ access to Moosehead beer won’t do anything to staunch the nearly nonexistent flow of fentanyl from Canada. But chopping up American automakers’ supply chains—ones that have freely crisscrossed the continent since 1965—will be costly and chaotic. Trump’s tariffs have cost American automakers more than $12 billion, according to an analysis by the Anderson Economic Group. Meanwhile, states and industries that depend heavily on exports to Canada figure to be harmed by the loss of that market as the trade war continues.

We should not tolerate a system where one person, no matter how powerful, can arbitrarily decide what goods can enter the country. This is madness—and if the past 20 months are any indication, worse is yet to come.