The Kentucky Distillers’ Association is holding a summit of eight fellow associations from July 25 to discuss ways to reduce whiskey’s vulnerability to ongoing trade spats between the U.S. and other countries, the Associated Press reports.

That follows the imposition of duties by the European Union and Mexico in retaliation for America’s section 232 metals tariffs, as outlined in Panjiva research of June 6. It isn’t clear, however, how the industry plans to deal with the problem aside from lobbying or coordinated price increases (which may fall foul of antitrust rules).

Panjiva data suggests that American exporters including Brown Forman may anticipate broad-based duties with exports to the EU having risen by 32.1% in May vs. a year earlier while rest of world shipments increased 27.6%.

Chart segments U.S. exports of whiskey by destination on a monthly (dotted) and quarterly average (solid) basis.    Source: Panjiva

The potential downturn in exports can be seen from Mexican imports from the U.S. which, while only 5.9% of those heading to Europe, have already fallen by 47.5% on a year earlier in June and by 25.2% vs. the prior three months.

Chart segments Mexican imports of whiskey from the United States.    Source: Panjiva