VIDEO: In Senate Hearing, Kaine Highlights Catoctin Creek From Loudoun And Asks Trump Administration: Who Is This Trade War Against?
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, pressed a Trump Administration official on President Trump’s trade war and the concerns he’s heard from Virginia farmers and business owners about the negative effect it is having on their business. In a Committee hearing on tariffs, Kaine, with a bottle Catoctin Creek Whiskey from Purcellville, VA in hand, told the success story of the Loudoun County company’s expansion and how that is now at risk because of the trade war that the Trump Administration has created with our allies.
Watch, here: https://timkaine.box.com/s/fqjb4upk1usvzmyrtxxet65pr9ww72ex
Below is a partial transcript:
“Yesterday, my poultry industry in the Shenandoah Valley and the Eastern shore came in to talk to me.… They are being significantly affected by the retaliation by China and other nations. And then I got one right here, Catoctin Creek Rye Whiskey. This is a tiny little Virginia distillery in Purcellville, which is in Loudoun County, and they are small. 10 employees. They make Rye Whiskey, Gin and Brandy. In the last five years, they spent about $100,000 to expand in Europe. In Europe, American Whiskey is really popular. This tiny company –I’m sorry – they employ about 20 people, has had some real significant success in starting to sell Catoctin Creek in Germany, Italy, Holland, and the U.K. After the steel and aluminum tariffs went into effect, the E.U. retaliated with equivalent tariffs on whiskey, an additional 25% tariff. The founder of the company, Scott Harris said ‘We’re just launching into the European market in a big way and this is the worst possible timing for us. We’re probably going to see all of our European sales come to a screeching halt.’”
“We talk about a trade war and the question is, who is it against? And in Virginia, it seems it’s against farmers and workers.”
Kaine also pointed to an estimate that shows the Trump Administration’s aluminum and steel tariffs and the retaliatory actions they caused could cost the United States 400,000 jobs, including nearly 11,000 in Virginia alone.
For months, Kaine has spoken out against the Trump Administration’s escalation of rhetoric and actions that have now led to trade wars around the world.
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