Jim Beam freezes production at its main plant in Kentucky.

Live from the UK, this is the Marketplace Morning Report from the BBC World Service.

I'm Gideon Long. Good morning.

One of the most famous names in American whiskey, Jim Beam, has said it will halt production at its main facility in Kentucky for the whole of next year.

Like many distillers in the US,

it's facing pressure from retaliatory tariffs and weaker consumer demand. I'm joined by the BBC's Surinjana Tuari. Hi, Surinjana. Hi there. So earlier this year, we saw Canadians boycotting

Jim Beam and indeed other American whiskers and other American products.

Is that responsible for the problems that Jim Beam is now facing?

It's a big part of it. I mean, these trade spats, the retaliatory tariffs, the tariffs in the

first place, they've caused a lot of uncertainty for businesses around the world,

including, you know, whiskey makers, spirit makers, alcohol makers in general,

and they've been unable to plan their businesses as a result.

Now, this is also about a fall in sales because demand is down.

There's so much uncertainty in the global economy.

People are generally tending to spend less.

Consumers are spending less on things like alcohol. That means that all that liquor that's been

produced until now, there's huge volumes of it. And that's what Jim Beam is facing. Apparently,

Kentucky has got a lot of aging casks where the whiskey is kept, barrels rather,

and it's actually taxed higher by the state for having older barrels.

And Jim Beam is an iconic American brand, but its owner is actually a huge Japanese company,

Suntory, and Suntory owns lots of other brands.

It owns Scotch whiskey brands, Japanese whiskey brands, and Suntory owns lots of other brands. It owns Scotch whiskey brands,

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