Trump Handed Shane Lowry the Irish Open Trophy and Killed the Tariff on Irish Whiskey. Sixteen Days From Now, Canadian Whiskey Gets Banned Outright.

President Donald Trump ended his weekend in Ireland on Sunday by presenting the Irish Open trophy to Shane Lowry at his own Doonbeg golf course and, in the same breath, announcing that the United States will drop its tariff on Irish whiskey. "Taoiseach and I talked about it, and Shane talked about it, and everybody's been bugging me," Trump told the crowd. "They're saying, 'Would you do me a favor? It's so unfair what's going on. Could you possibly take the tariffs off of Irish whiskey?' And I said, on behalf of the United States of America, I am going to take the tariffs off." The crowd erupted.

Irish whiskey currently faces the 10% tariff the administration imposed on most imports from the European Union. Trump, who does not drink, made a similar gesture after King Charles and Queen Camilla's state visit in April, lifting tariffs on U.K. whiskey, including Scotch. The White House has not said when the Irish exemption takes effect; CNN asked the U.S. trade representative and did not receive details. Simon Harris, Ireland's deputy prime minister and finance minister, called it "a welcome announcement of economic significance" that "reflects the very positive engagement we've had with the US administration on tariffs over the 18 months." Chris Swonger, president of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, said it marked "another positive step toward reducing barriers to spirits trade." At the Temple Bar in Dublin, manager Michael Delahunty was blunter: "Fantastic. We export a lot to America."

The mood on the other side of the Atlantic is different. On Tuesday, Trump announced by proclamation that the United States will ban imports of Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles, effective Sept. 29, in retaliation for Canadian counter-tariffs on roughly $20 billion in U.S. goods. Unlike a tariff, which works its way through supply chains over months, a ban empties shelves as soon as existing stock sells through. "Tariffs take time to get to consumers, but a ban effectively removes the product and supplier at any price, immediately," Wendong Zhang, an economist at Cornell's SC Johnson College of Business, told CBS News. "There's no negotiating. When a consumer goes to a store, there is a 'deshelving' of Canadian product." Brett House of Columbia Business School called it "bad for everyone," adding that Americans can switch to domestic substitutes but "the thing you're switching to might not be higher cost, but could be lower satisfaction." The White House did not respond to CBS's request for comment on the limits to consumer choice.

At least one Canadian brand appears to have read the fine print. Crown Royal, one of the best-selling Canadian whiskies in the U.S., still distills in Manitoba but moved its bottling from Ontario to Alabama before the ban was announced. An annex to the proclamation bars only whiskies in containers smaller than four liters, meaning bulk spirits can still cross the border to be bottled stateside. Crown Royal did not respond to CBS's request for comment.

The whiskey announcement capped a four-day visit that generated more controversy than trade policy. Trump met Irish President Catherine Connolly and Taoiseach Micheál Martin in Dublin on Saturday, said he would "love to see" Ireland unified, and became the first sitting U.S. president to attend the Irish Open, while protesters gathered in Dublin and around Doonbeg and Shannon. He spent Saturday night in the members' bar of his own club to chants of "U-S-A." Martin, standing beside him at the trophy presentation, said "the last four days reflects also the very strong relationship, the strength of an enduring relationship between the United States of America and Ireland." For Irish distillers, that relationship just got cheaper. For Canadian ones, the clock is running.