Liquor Exports Rise Over 16%

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 30, 3:14PM EST

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The thirst for drink is up overseas. The Distilled Spirits Council made two announcements it believes are important. The first might be. Distilled spirits took more market share from beer in the US last year. The second announcement most certain is critical to the industry. Exports rose 16.5% last year

The organization announced that

Distilled spirits exports exceeded one billion dollars for the fifth consecutive year, reaching a projected record $1.34 billion in 2011 (based on 11-month totals). Total spirits exports grew 16.5% over the preceding year, while American whiskey — 69% of total exports — grew 13.6%.

An ongoing trend towards open markets and sensible transparent regulations, as well as a focus on communicating the heritage of the products in new markets, contributed to the trade growth. Among significant trade victories in 2011 were the passage of the U.S.- Korea Free Trade Agreement, which will eliminate the 20% tariff on Bourbon/Tennessee Whiskey upon implementation of the agreement, and the World Trade Organization’s final ruling that the Philippines’ excise tax on distilled spirits is discriminatory and in violation of WTO rules.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.