U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Sunday at the close of a golf tournament in Ireland that he plans to remove a 10% tariff on Irish whiskey.
He made the declaration during the trophy presentation for the Irish Open, saying he had been asked about the issue by many people, including some of the golfers.
“Everybody’s been bugging me” to do it, the Republican president said. “And I said, ‘On behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off’” Irish whiskey.
Irish whiskey currently faces the standard tariff imposed by Trump on most imports from the European Union, which was reduced from 15% to 10% in July.
Trump announced in May that he was lifting certain tariffs on U.K. whiskey, which includes Scotch and spirits made in Northern Ireland.
Trump’s apparent surprise announcement at the conclusion of the tournament was met with loud whistling and cheers from the crowd of spectators.
In May, the Irish Whiskey Association called for the tariffs to be removed, arguing that such a step would help many U.S. companies with Irish products in their portfolios and avoid uncertainty for consumers.
Details on how soon the tariff would be lifted were not immediately available.
Trump said on April 30 that he gave the United Kingdom a tariff break on whiskey after King Charles III and Queen Camilla visited the White House. “The King and Queen got me to do something that nobody else was able to do, without hardly even asking!” Trump posted on social media.
The Scotch Whisky Association said July 24 that the zero-tariff policy had come into effect.
This report was written by Darlene Superville, Jill Lawless and The Associated Press. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
Source: fortune.com
