At least one brewery appears to be choosing a side in the escalating trade dispute between the United States and Canada. Sapporo Breweries plans to move production of non-alcoholic beer for American consumers from Canada to the United States by the first half of 2027, as the Japanese brewer seeks to expand its share of the U.S. market.
Chief Strategy Officer Rieko Shofu told Bloomberg that Sapporo is considering acquiring or building a brewery on the West Coast or contracting with another manufacturer. The company currently makes its non-alcoholic beer for the American market in Canada.
“The U.S. is a huge market, and we have a lot of momentum right now in terms of how much we can expand our share of that market,” Shofu said, according to multiple reports.
Sapporo is Japan’s fourth-largest brewer and the producer of the top-selling Asian beer in the United States. Although the company has presented the planned relocation as part of its broader American expansion, the decision comes as tariffs and retaliatory measures make cross-border manufacturing increasingly uncertain.
The U.S.-Canada trade dispute has intensified since negotiations collapsed in August. President Donald Trump subsequently imposed 50 percent tariffs on approximately $20 billion worth of Canadian exports, including wine, dairy products, furniture, cement and hockey equipment. Canada answered Tuesday with tariffs ranging from 15 percent to 50 percent on more than 700 American products valued at roughly $20 billion, including steel, dairy products, electronics and agricultural equipment.
The Trump administration responded by escalating pressure on Ottawa. Trump announced restrictions on Canadian alcoholic beverages, dairy products and motorcycles and directed the General Services Administration to begin removing Canadian goods from federal purchasing schedules. The administration says Canada has denied American farmers and businesses reciprocal access to its markets, while Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government argues that the new American tariffs violate the longstanding North American trade relationship.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent addressed Canada’s retaliation during Breitbart News’s “State of the Economy” event Tuesday in Washington, warning that Ottawa lacks the economic leverage to prevail in a prolonged trade fight with its much larger neighbor.
“If I were the Canadians, I would be careful because they wanted the benefits of being a state without being a state,” Bessent said. “And now that the arrangements may be splintering, everyone is going to come to our side.”
The worsening dispute has also raised questions about the future of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which has allowed most qualifying goods to move across the continent without tariffs. Canada remains heavily dependent on the American market, which receives roughly three-quarters of its merchandise exports, while manufacturers on both sides of the border have built deeply integrated supply chains around decades of relatively open trade.
Sapporo’s shift is part of a broader investment push following its decision last year to sell its real estate operations and focus more heavily on its core beer business. The company plans to invest between ¥300 billion and ¥400 billion, or roughly $1.9 billion to $2.6 billion, through 2030, including possible acquisitions.
The brewer is seeking to increase operating profit from approximately ¥24 billion last year to ¥40 billion, with overseas operations expected to account for about 30 percent of that growth. It is also expanding elsewhere in Asia, announcing a joint venture with Carlsberg A/S in July to grow its business in Southeast Asia while exploring investment opportunities in China and South Korea.
Sapporo faces a different problem in Japan, where a shrinking population is expected to depress alcohol consumption over the long term. Shofu said the company has a “considerable sense of urgency” about its domestic market and is not ruling out greater supply-chain cooperation with competing brewers in the years ahead.
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