This week, Donald Trump announced he would lift tariffs on all whisky products, including Scotch whisky from Scotland. Fletcher and Octavio dig into why food and drink always end up at the center of trade wars, and what that tells us about culture and identity.
Esta semana, Donald Trump anunció que va a eliminar los aranceles al whisky, incluyendo el Scotch whisky de Escocia. Fletcher y Octavio hablan de por qué las bebidas y la comida siempre están en el centro de las guerras comerciales, y qué dice esto sobre la cultura y la identidad.
6 essential B1-level terms from this episode, with translations and example sentences in Spanish.
| Spanish | English | Example |
|---|---|---|
| arancel | tariff / import duty | El gobierno puso un arancel al vino importado para proteger a los productores locales. |
| madurar | to mature / to ripen / to age | Este queso necesita seis meses para madurar bien. |
| añejo | aged / old (of food, drink) | Prefiero el ron añejo porque tiene un sabor más suave y profundo. |
| denominación de origen | denomination of origin / protected designation | El Rioja tiene denominación de origen, así que solo los vinos de esa región pueden usar ese nombre. |
| destilería | distillery | Visitamos una destilería pequeña en las montañas de Escocia. |
| exportación | export | El aceite de oliva es una de las exportaciones más importantes de España. |
Alright, I want to start with something that sounds like a minor footnote to the trade war but actually tells you a lot about how these things really work.
Trump announced this week he's lifting tariffs on whisky.
All whisky.
Including Scotch.
Sí, y esto es interesante porque los aranceles al whisky escocés no son nuevos.
Yes, and this is interesting because the tariffs on Scotch whisky are not new.
Empezaron en 2018, cuando Trump puso aranceles al acero y al aluminio europeos, y Europa respondió con aranceles a productos americanos muy simbólicos.
They started in 2018, when Trump put tariffs on European steel and aluminum, and Europe responded with tariffs on very symbolic American products.
Right, and the symbolism matters.
Europe didn't just pick random products.
They chose things that would sting politically.
Bourbon from Kentucky, Harley-Davidsons from Wisconsin.
Products tied to specific states, specific voting blocs.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
Y entonces, cuando Europa puso aranceles al whisky americano, Estados Unidos respondió con aranceles al whisky escocés.
And then, when Europe put tariffs on American whisky, the United States responded with tariffs on Scotch whisky.
Así funciona una guerra comercial: los dos lados atacan los productos más importantes para la economía y la cultura del otro.
That's how a trade war works: both sides attack the products most important to the other side's economy and culture.
And that word, culture, is the one I keep coming back to.
Because whisky isn't just a product.
For Scotland, it's an identity.
The industry employs something like forty thousand people directly, and it's one of the UK's biggest exports globally.
Sí, y en España entendemos esto muy bien.
Yes, and in Spain we understand this very well.
El vino, el aceite de oliva, el jamón ibérico...
Wine, olive oil, Iberian ham...
no son solo comida o bebida.
they are not just food or drink.
Son parte de lo que somos.
They are part of who we are.
Cuando alguien ataca estos productos con aranceles, no es solo un problema económico.
When someone attacks these products with tariffs, it's not just an economic problem.
Es algo más profundo.
It's something deeper.
That's a fair point.
I was in Edinburgh back in 2019, right in the middle of that first tariff wave, talking to distillers in the Highlands.
The anger wasn't primarily financial, it was personal.
One guy told me he had barrels aging that his grandfather had started.
Claro, porque el whisky escocés necesita muchos años para madurar.
Of course, because Scotch whisky needs many years to mature.
Un whisky de doce años significa doce años de trabajo, de espera, de inversión.
A twelve-year whisky means twelve years of work, of waiting, of investment.
Cuando los aranceles llegaron, muchos productores ya no podían vender bien en el mercado americano, que es el más grande del mundo para el Scotch.
When the tariffs arrived, many producers could no longer sell well in the American market, which is the largest in the world for Scotch.
The US market absorbs about a quarter of all Scotch exports by value.
That's not a market you can just replace.
You can't pivot to selling it somewhere else overnight when you've spent decades building relationships with American distributors.
Y esto es lo que la gente no entiende siempre sobre los aranceles.
And this is what people don't always understand about tariffs.
No es solo pagar más dinero.
It's not just paying more money.
Es perder relaciones, perder confianza, perder un mercado que tardaste muchos años en construir.
It's losing relationships, losing trust, losing a market that took you many years to build.
Now here's the historical piece I find genuinely fascinating.
Food and drink have been weapons in trade disputes for centuries.
The British corn laws, the French wine wars with Spain in the 1890s, American bourbon caught in the crossfire of the EU's steel dispute.
This is not a new pattern.
Espera, ¿qué fue la guerra del vino entre Francia y España?
Wait, what was the wine war between France and Spain?
No conozco bien esa historia.
I don't know that history well.
So, late nineteenth century.
France's vineyards were being destroyed by a pest called phylloxera.
They were desperate for bulk wine to blend.
Spain stepped in, exported enormous volumes, made good money.
Then France recovered, didn't want the competition, and started blocking Spanish wine with tariffs and regulations.
Ah, sí, ahora recuerdo.
Ah, yes, now I remember.
Y para España fue muy malo.
And for Spain it was very bad.
Muchas familias en el sur y en Cataluña dependían de la exportación de vino a Francia.
Many families in the south and in Catalonia depended on wine exports to France.
Cuando Francia cerró el mercado, muchas regiones sufrieron mucho.
When France closed the market, many regions suffered a lot.
Es un ejemplo perfecto de lo que Fletcher decía: los aranceles afectan a personas reales, no solo a números.
It's a perfect example of what Fletcher was saying: tariffs affect real people, not just numbers.
And what happened in those regions is what economists politely call structural adjustment and what everyone else calls devastation.
Emigration, poverty, whole towns collapsed.
Over wine tariffs.
La comida y la bebida son muy importantes en política porque conectan con la vida diaria de la gente.
Food and drink are very important in politics because they connect with people's daily lives.
Cuando el precio del pan sube, o cuando no puedes vender tu aceite, lo sientes en casa, en la mesa.
When the price of bread goes up, or when you can't sell your olive oil, you feel it at home, at the table.
Es inmediato.
It's immediate.
No es abstracto como otros problemas económicos.
It's not abstract like other economic problems.
The French Revolution, the bread riots that preceded it.
The Irish famine and British trade policy.
The Russian grain crisis before 1917.
Every time.
You tax food or you block food exports or you let food prices spiral, and eventually something political breaks.
Sí, y hay un dicho en español: "El hambre es mala consejera." Cuando la gente tiene hambre, o cuando pierde su trabajo por culpa de un arancel, no piensa en política comercial internacional.
Yes, and there is a saying in Spanish: 'Hunger is a bad adviser.' When people are hungry, or when they lose their job because of a tariff, they don't think about international trade policy.
Piensa en su familia.
They think about their family.
Y entonces actúa.
And then they act.
"El hambre es mala consejera." I like that.
We have something similar: an army marches on its stomach.
Napoleon supposedly said it, though historians argue about whether he actually did.
Bueno, volvamos al whisky.
Well, let's go back to the whisky.
Porque lo que Trump hizo esta semana también tiene una lógica política muy clara.
Because what Trump did this week also has a very clear political logic.
Escocia no vota en las elecciones americanas.
Scotland doesn't vote in American elections.
Pero los productores de Bourbon de Kentucky y Tennessee sí.
But the Bourbon producers in Kentucky and Tennessee do.
Y ellos querían que Europa quitara los aranceles al Bourbon.
And they wanted Europe to remove the tariffs on Bourbon.
Así que Trump quitó los aranceles al Scotch para mostrar que puede hacer acuerdos.
So Trump removed the tariffs on Scotch to show he can make deals.
That's the calculation exactly.
Kentucky produces about ninety-five percent of the world's bourbon.
That's a concentrated political interest in a state that matters.
If bourbon sales to Europe are suffering, those distillers call their senators, their senators call the White House, and things move.
Y esto me parece fascinante porque el whisky, que es una bebida muy antigua con mucha historia, ahora está en el centro de la política internacional del siglo veintiuno.
And I find this fascinating because whisky, which is a very old drink with a lot of history, is now at the center of twenty-first century international politics.
El destilador en las Highlands de Escocia y el productor de bourbon en Kentucky están conectados por decisiones en Washington y Bruselas.
The distiller in the Scottish Highlands and the bourbon producer in Kentucky are connected by decisions in Washington and Brussels.
Connected and competing.
There's a rivalry there too.
American whiskey, spelled without the E by the way for bourbon and most American styles, has grown enormously as a global category.
Scotch used to be the prestige spirit.
Now bourbon challenges it in markets that Scotch considered its own.
Y en España, esto es muy visible.
And in Spain, this is very visible.
Antes, en un bar bueno, tenías Scotch whisky.
Before, in a good bar, you had Scotch whisky.
Ahora hay mucho bourbon americano, mucho whisky japonés también.
Now there is a lot of American bourbon, a lot of Japanese whisky too.
El mercado cambió.
The market changed.
La gente quiere probar cosas nuevas.
People want to try new things.
Japanese whisky is its own story.
They essentially studied Scotch techniques obsessively, brought them home, adapted them to Japanese sensibilities, and now produce some of the most sought-after bottles in the world.
Suntory, Nikka.
They came out of nowhere on the international stage and blindsided everyone.
Es el mismo proceso con muchos productos.
It's the same process with many products.
El aceite de oliva, por ejemplo.
Olive oil, for example.
Antes, Italia y España dominaban el mercado mundial.
Before, Italy and Spain dominated the world market.
Ahora hay aceite de oliva muy bueno de Australia, de Argentina, de California.
Now there is very good olive oil from Australia, from Argentina, from California.
El mundo cambió.
The world changed.
Los conocimientos viajan.
Knowledge travels.
And that's where the authenticity argument comes in, which I suspect you have feelings about.
Claro que tengo sentimientos.
Of course I have feelings.
El aceite de oliva de California puede ser bueno, sí.
The olive oil from California can be good, yes.
Pero no es igual.
But it's not the same.
El lugar donde crece el olivo, el clima, la tierra, todo eso afecta al sabor.
The place where the olive tree grows, the climate, the soil, all of that affects the flavor.
Los franceses tienen una palabra para esto: "terroir".
The French have a word for this: 'terroir'.
Nosotros en España también lo entendemos muy bien.
We in Spain understand this very well too.
The terroir argument is the same one Scottish distillers make about water.
The specific water source, the peat, the local barley.
They'll tell you that's why you can't replicate a Highland single malt in New Jersey.
The place is literally in the bottle.
Y la ley protege esto.
And the law protects this.
El Scotch whisky tiene una denominación de origen muy estricta.
Scotch whisky has a very strict denomination of origin.
Para llamarse Scotch, tiene que producirse en Escocia, con ingredientes específicos, con métodos específicos.
To be called Scotch, it must be produced in Scotland, with specific ingredients, with specific methods.
Es como el Champagne, o el Rioja, o el Parmigiano Reggiano.
It's like Champagne, or Rioja, or Parmigiano Reggiano.
Those geographical indications, GIs in trade law, are actually one of the most consistently contentious issues between the US and Europe in trade negotiations.
Europe fights hard for them globally.
The US tends to see them as barriers to competition.
That tension runs right through the whisky dispute.
Y tiene mucho sentido.
And it makes a lot of sense.
Para Europa, las denominaciones de origen son cultura, son historia, son la identidad de una región.
For Europe, denominations of origin are culture, are history, are the identity of a region.
Para los americanos, a veces son solo restricciones al mercado libre.
For Americans, sometimes they are just restrictions on the free market.
Pero ¿puedes llamar Champagne a un vino espumoso de Ohio?
But can you call a sparkling wine from Ohio Champagne?
Para los franceses, eso es casi una ofensa.
For the French, that is almost an offense.
In American supermarkets for decades you could find California champagne.
That battle was fought and mostly settled in trade agreements, but the argument never fully goes away.
Same with parmesan.
American-made parmesan has been a point of contention with Italy for years.
El "parmesan" americano es una conversación diferente.
American 'parmesan' is a different conversation.
Pero lo que me parece importante es que cuando Trump quita los aranceles al Scotch, no es solo un gesto económico.
But what I think is important is that when Trump removes the tariffs on Scotch, it's not just an economic gesture.
Es también un gesto político hacia el Reino Unido, que quiere un acuerdo comercial con Estados Unidos después del Brexit.
It's also a political gesture toward the United Kingdom, which wants a trade deal with the United States after Brexit.
That's a piece of this I haven't seen discussed much.
Post-Brexit Britain desperately wants a US trade deal.
It was one of the arguments made for leaving the EU, that Britain could negotiate its own deals.
A decade later they still don't have one with America.
Lifting Scotch tariffs could be a first move in that chess game.
Sí, y para Escocia específicamente es interesante porque muchos escoceses votaron contra el Brexit.
Yes, and for Scotland specifically it's interesting because many Scots voted against Brexit.
Escocia quería quedarse en la Unión Europea.
Scotland wanted to stay in the European Union.
Y ahora su producto más famoso depende de las negociaciones comerciales entre Londres y Washington.
And now their most famous product depends on trade negotiations between London and Washington.
Es una ironía muy grande.
It's a very big irony.
The Scotch whisky industry funded some of the most visible remain campaigns in 2016.
And now they're caught between an independence movement in Edinburgh, a Conservative government in London that drove Brexit, and a tariff regime decided in Washington.
They're playing on multiple boards simultaneously.
Y todo esto por una botella de whisky.
And all of this over a bottle of whisky.
Bueno, por muchas botellas.
Well, over many bottles.
Pero es un buen ejemplo de cómo la comida y la bebida son el punto donde la política internacional llega a la vida real de las personas.
But it's a good example of how food and drink are the point where international politics arrives in people's real lives.
No es abstracto.
It's not abstract.
Es algo que puedes comprar en una tienda, que puedes beber con amigos.
It's something you can buy in a store, that you can drink with friends.
And the thing about lifting the tariff now, rather than, say, two years ago, is that the damage to some smaller distilleries may already be done.
When you lose market position, you don't automatically get it back the moment the tariff drops.
Buyers have moved on, found other products they like.
Exacto.
Exactly.
Y esto lo entiendo muy bien en el contexto del vino español también.
And I understand this very well in the context of Spanish wine too.
Cuando un mercado se cierra, los productores pequeños sufren más que las grandes empresas.
When a market closes, small producers suffer more than large companies.
Las empresas grandes pueden esperar.
Large companies can wait.
Los productores pequeños, a veces, no pueden.
Small producers, sometimes, cannot.
There's a word in economics, hysteresis, for the way damage persists even after the conditions that caused it are removed.
Trade hysteresis.
The tariff is gone but the scar tissue remains.
Entonces, para terminar: Trump quitó los aranceles al whisky.
So, to finish: Trump removed the tariffs on whisky.
Es bueno para Escocia y para el bourbon americano en Europa.
It's good for Scotland and for American bourbon in Europe.
Pero la historia más grande es que la comida y la bebida siempre están en el centro de las guerras comerciales, porque representan algo más que dinero.
But the bigger story is that food and drink are always at the center of trade wars, because they represent something more than money.
Representan identidad, cultura, trabajo, familia.
They represent identity, culture, work, family.
Exactly right.
And that, I think, is why these disputes always generate more heat than their actual economic scale might seem to justify.
Octavio, one thing I wanted to ask you about, because I noticed it earlier: you said the whisky "necesita años para madurar." And I know "madurar" from fruit, for ripening.
Is it the same word for aging a spirit?
Sí, es la misma palabra.
Yes, it's the same word.
"Madurar" significa desarrollarse con el tiempo, alcanzar un estado mejor.
'Madurar' means to develop over time, to reach a better state.
Una fruta madura, un queso madura, un vino madura, un whisky madura.
A fruit matures, a cheese matures, a wine matures, a whisky matures.
También usamos la palabra para las personas: un hombre o una mujer que madura con la experiencia.
We also use the word for people: a man or woman who matures with experience.
So it's one verb covering what in English we'd split across several: ripen, age, mature, develop.
We'd say a whisky ages, not that it ripens.
But in Spanish it's all madurar.
Sí, exactamente.
Yes, exactly.
Y también tenemos la palabra "añejo", que usamos específicamente para bebidas y quesos que tienen muchos años.
And we also have the word 'añejo,' which we use specifically for drinks and cheeses that have many years.
Un whisky añejo, un ron añejo, un queso añejo.
An aged whisky, an aged rum, an aged cheese.
Es una palabra más especializada que "madurado", pero las dos son correctas.
It's a more specialized word than 'madurado,' but both are correct.
Añejo.
I know that word from Mexican rum and tequila labels.
So it's the same root as "año", the word for year.
Exactamente.
Exactly.
"Añejo" viene de "año".
'Añejo' comes from 'año.' It's literally 'of many years.' So when you say a whisky is añejo, you're saying it has history, that it has time inside it.
Es literalmente "de muchos años".
I like that idea.
Así que cuando dices que un whisky es añejo, estás diciendo que tiene historia, que tiene tiempo dentro.
Time is an ingredient.
Me gusta esa idea.
El tiempo es un ingrediente.
Time is an ingredient.
That might be the most useful thing either of us has said today.
And also, probably, the argument the Scottish distillers would make against anyone who tries to rush the process.
You can drop a tariff overnight.
You cannot speed up the barrel.
Perfecto.
Perfect.
Y con eso terminamos.
And with that we finish.
"Madurar", "añejo".
'Madurar,' 'añejo.' Words for time, for patience, for the good things you cannot rush.
Palabras para el tiempo, para la paciencia, para las cosas buenas que no puedes apurar.
Like good whisky.
Como el buen whisky.
Like a good radio program.
Como un buen programa de radio.