Georgia Craft Brewer's Guild says tariff whiplash is impacting local brewers

April 14th, 2025

Georgia brewers say the cost to make their products will likely rise under President Donald Trump’s import taxes. (Pexels)

Georgia brewers say they are stretched thin as the cost to make their products will likely rise under President Donald Trump’s import taxes.

Joseph Cortes is the executive director of the Georgia Craft Brewer’s Guild. He says that breweries faced inflation and supply chain disruptions after the pandemic and now have to deal with “the whiplash of tariffs.”

Cortes says most of the aluminum used in the industry comes from places like Canada, which is now subject to sweeping 25% steel and aluminum tariffs.

“We just don’t have the production capability in the United States at this point,” Cortes said.

While the White House has said that these import taxes are meant to boost domestic manufacturing, Cortes says that would cost too much and take too long to build. He adds that his brewers don’t have time to play this waiting game.

“These threaten to drive up the cost of these critical inputs at a time [when] every single one of our brewers are already stretched thin,” Cortes said.

Denish Shah is a marketing professor at Georgia State University. He says these various import taxes, paused or not, are bad news for consumers.

“Let’s say you’re buying a laptop, for example,” Shah said. “If there are certain components that are coming from China, that is enough to increase the price of a laptop or an iPhone or any of those items for that matter.”

Georgia economists say we have not seen significant price increases yet. Still, it is on the horizon as businesses decide how much of these additional costs to pass down to consumers.