N.S. craft brewers hope provinces ease up on trade regulations

Maritime craft brewers are joining the push to remove trade barriers between provinces.

Danny O’Hearn likes to make sure his shelves are stocked.

“We’re hoping with this going on now, with what’s going on in the world, more people will buy local and find your local brewery and support them,” he says.

Local breweries and other businesses are hoping it will soon become easier to sell their products across the country. Interprovincial trade barriers either tax their product, have conflicting regulatory standards or restrict their sale altogether.

“You have to apply to get in, like, every other jurisdiction. You have to make an application and if they like it, they put it on and if they don’t, it doesn’t make it,” says O’Hearn, who is the co-owner of Nine Locks Brewery in Dartmouth, N.S.

“A lot of this stuff is legacy, it’s been around for a long time. It was done at a time when everybody was trying to protect their own area and maintain their independence,” says Brian Titus, former president of the Craft Brewers Association of Nova Scotia and president of Garrison Brewing.

Making trade easier between provinces has long been discussed but with President Donald Trump talking tariffs, Titus thinks now is the time for the premiers to act.

“As we’ve seen recently, the world is a volatile place and we should be starting at home in terms of trying to open things up and support each other,” Titus says. “I think the premiers are going to have to get together and start bringing some of these walls down and accept a little less control.”

According to the International Monetary Fund, trade barriers in Canada are equivalent to a self-imposed 21 per cent tariff, which isn’t far off from Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs on goods entering the U.S.

“I am much more comfortable selling within this country. I think our product resonates better within our own country so why is it so complicated?” Titus says.

Nova Scotia made things easier on the beef industry with supports announced for abattoirs and meat processors on Tuesday.

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