Whisky bonds containing £millions worth of Scotch and ready to be exported to the United States. Picture by Pedro
By Bill Heaney
US President Donald Trump flew back to America today leaving behind some good news for Dumbarton.
President Trump has showed a “willingness” to move on tariffs for Scotch whisky, Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said.
The First Minister met the President ahead of the opening of a second course at his Aberdeenshire golf club, where he pressed him on the 10 per cent levy on Scotland’s national drink.
The tariff, it is believed, costs the sector £4 million per week, with distillery bosses keen to reach an agreement as part of the US-UK trade deal.
Top of the whisky list locally is of course Chivas Brothers at the former Allied Distillers plant at Kilmalid, but Dumbarton, which was once alluded to in the House of Commons as the whisky capital of world, has been making a comeback since the Castle Street distillery closed.
And mega drinks company Diageo moved its Strathleven Bonded Warehouses to Leven in Fife.
All the new local whisky companies, along with Chivas Brothers, will be hoping to boost sales on the back of Trump’s meeting with Swinney, and this could create more jobs in West Dunbartonshire.
Speaking to the PA news agency after the opening of the course, the First Minister said: “I think there’s a willingness for President Trump to look at the issues that I’ve set out to him.
“I don’t think that was the position a few days ago, because I think President Trump was of the view that the trade deal was done and dusted and that was an end of the matter.”