The CEO of the U.S. company that makes the iconic Jack Daniel’s bourbon whiskey,  said that the recent announcements that Canadian provinces are taking all U.S. liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.

“I mean, that’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, [and] completely removing our products from the shelves,” said Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s CEO Lawson Whiting, on a post-earnings call March 5, reported by The Guardian. Whiting, however, said that Canada accounted for only 1% of their total sales and that the company could withstand the hit.

Several Canadian provinces, including Ontario, which is economically the largest, have taken U.S. liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against Donald Trump’s tariffs.

On March 4, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, ordered the government-owned Liquor Control Board of Ontario to remove all U.S. alcohol from its shelves and catalogues. The regional alcohol agency is believed to be the largest alcohol buyer in the world, according to Global News. 

“The governor of Kentucky said, ‘Don’t touch our bourbon,' and I said, ‘Governor, that’s the first thing we’re going after,’” Ontario Premier Doug Ford said during a news conference March 4, during which he also announced that Ontario had canceled a multi-million dollar contract with Starlink, a company owned by Elon Musk, and was barring all U.S. companies from bidding for government procurement contracts in the province, effective immediately.

Ford appeared on ABC News on Wednesday, calling Trump’s tariff against Canada the “craziest idea” which "caught everyone off guard."

Canada on March 4 also imposed 25% tariffs on goods imported from the U.S., including wine, spirits and beer.

Brown-Forman has been facing a slowdown in demand so far in 2025, mostly accounted for by sales in the U.S., Canada and Europe, which has offset increased sales in emerging markets such as Mexico and Poland.