New York: US President Donald Trump announced that he will remove tariffs on Scottish whisky to celebrate the connection between the United States and Britain as King Charles III winds up his four-day visit to the United States.
“In Honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom … I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon, two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“People have wanted to do this for a long time, in that there had been great Inter-Country Trade, especially having to do with the Wooden Barrels used,” Trump said.
The Scotch industry has lobbied the Trump administration to eliminate the 10-percent tariff on its whisky for months, focusing on two arguments: the United States is the largest consumer of Scotch whisky and Scotland spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year importing oak barrels from Kentucky distillers, Xinhua news agency reported.
US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the move was part of a broader economic agreement between the two countries to expand market access for key industries, including beef, pharmaceuticals and ethanol, local media reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, Trump presented the King with a custom facsimile of an 18th-century letter from John Adams to John Jay, recounting Adams’s meeting with King George III — a moment that marked the fragile beginning of diplomatic ties after the American Revolution.
The King’s gift carried its own layered meaning: a framed facsimile of the 1879 design plans for the Resolute Desk, the iconic Oval Office fixture crafted from the timbers of a British ship and presented to the United States as a gesture of goodwill in the 19th century.
For the First Lady and the Queen, the exchange was more personal. Melania Trump offered Tiffany silver teaspoons and a jar of White House honey — a nod to Queen Camilla’s interest in beekeeping — while the Queen presented a brooch designed by British jeweller Fiona Rae.
The day’s events extended beyond ceremony into a softer display of cultural diplomacy.
At the White House Tennis Pavilion, Melania Trump and Queen Camilla jointly hosted a group of students in an educational programme using virtual reality and artificial intelligence. Students explored British landmarks — from Stonehenge to Buckingham Palace — through immersive headsets, before examining American historical artefacts using AI-enabled glasses.
(IANS)
