‘Makes you nervous’: Kansas City brewery hit with new tariff fee amid Trump trade war
When Karlton Graham ordered parts for Kansas City Bier Company’s canning operation last week, the brewery’s Canadian supplier responded with a clear new message.
Because of newly implemented tariffs on goods shipped from Canada into the United States, Kansas City Bier Company would have to pay the import tax before it received its equipment, a message from Cask Global Canning Solutions, which is based in Alberta, said.
“...You, as the recipient, will be responsible for covering any applicable import duties before delivery,” a company representative wrote. “Your order will be held in bond until the tariff is paid.”
Graham, Kansas City Bier Company’s head brewer, posted the note on Facebook, with a clear message of his own for anyone unclear about who would be paying the import tax: The tariff would be paid by Kansas City Bier Company, not by Canada or some other far-off group.
“I just feel like people should fully understand and know that the money’s coming out of a small, local company, not from a government or some big importing company or some multi-national conglomerate that you don’t know much about,” he told The Star Friday.
“It’s literally money paid by Kansas City Bier Company. I assume that that’s happening all over the country,” he said.
He is quick to note that the brewery isn’t being pushed to bankruptcy and isn’t rushing to raise prices on six-packs because of this one interaction with a Canadian company. The brewery has been notified that the aluminum it uses is produced in the U.S., he said, and thus wouldn’t be subject to tariffs on those imports.
But President Donald Trump’s trade war has introduced a new bit of uncertainty for the business and others in the industry.
“What I’ve heard is that someday things will be much better than they are now,” Graham said. “Well, when? How? It’s hard to put your finger on exactly where this is going.”
Other breweries that do use Canadian aluminum will have to raise their prices, Graham said. And others, whether they use Canadian metal or not, may also raise their prices as well in response, he said.
If other, bigger companies shift to using American aluminum, Graham wonders if Kansas City Bier Company could get pushed out by its supplier. Larger equipment the brewery relies on and other materials also come from overseas.
“It certainly makes you nervous that changes could come at you that you weren’t predicting,” he said.
Tariffs of 25% on steel and aluminum imports went into effect last Wednesday amid Trump’s broader trade war.
“The United States of America is going to take back a lot of what was stolen from it by other countries and, frankly, by incompetent U.S. leadership,” Trump said Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. “We’re going to take back our wealth, and we’re going to take back a lot of the companies that left.”
Keeping up with demand
A large swath of aluminum used in the U.S. comes from across its northern border.
The Aluminum Association, a trade group, said around two-thirds of the U.S. aluminum industry’s metal comes from Canada, “since all U.S.-based smelters, even running at full capacity, cannot produce nearly enough metal to meet demand.” About 90% of the country’s scrap imports come from either Canada or Mexico, the group said.
“It would take billions of investment over decades to make the United States fully self-sufficient for its metal needs,” the group said.
In a blog post, Katie Marisic, senior director of federal affairs for the Brewers Association, a trade group, said the 25% tariffs the Trump administration implemented would likely lead to higher aluminum prices.
In early 2025 sales data, she said, aluminum cans account for about 75% of packaged craft beer volume and revenue.
Small and independent brewers have already seen retaliatory effects from the tariffs, she said, noting, “Brewers that export beer to Canada have had products pulled off the shelves and had shipments canceled. Canada imports 37.5% of American craft beer exports, making it our industry’s largest export market.”
“Though the impact of tariffs might not be immediate,” Marisic wrote, “the Brewers Association has been meeting with members of Congress and sharing with the administration the long-term negative effect that these tariffs could have on the more than 9,500 small and independent breweries across the country.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 11:28 AM.
