Biden Omits Repeal of Aluminum Tariffs from Agenda: Beer Institute

Those of us who thought hops was the key to manufacturing beer were wrong: It's aluminum, writes Brian Crawford, president/CEO, Beer Institute, in Bloomberg Tax.  "Aluminum is the single largest input cost in American beer manufacturing," he says, and in 2020, 74% of the 41 billion cans and bottles used to package beer were aluminum – and 75% of that was recycled.

So an American consumer might think that aluminum tariffs would be of little consequence.  How wrong our Joe Six-Pack would be.  Only 7% of the $1.7 billion the U.S. beverage industry has paid in tariffs were to the U.S. Treasury.  Where did the rest go?  To U.S. rolling mills and Canadian smelters, "who charge end-users a tariff burdened price no matter the content of the metal or where it came from," Crawford writes.

Blame the Midwest Premium, which Crawford calls "an obscure pricing system."  The fastest way to get relief would be to repeal Section 232 Tariffs, Crawford says.  Not only would repealing Section 232 Tariffs help the beer industry, but the Progressive Policy Institute and other organizations say it would help reduce inflation.

Rolling back the Section 232 Tariffs would lower prices for consumers, let brewers and beer importers reinvest in their businesses and add new jobs for the beer economy – "something we could raise a glass to," Crawford wrote.