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One of America's biggest whiskey makers pauses production.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
China hits European dairy with steep tariffs and a new trade deal reshapes ties between India and New Zealand.
Yes, it's one of the most famous names in American whiskey production.
But Birdman Company Jim Bean says it will pause production for a year at its main Kentucky distillery from January.
The company told the BBC the temporary shutdown will be used to invest in its upgrades at the site.
But the move also comes at a time of growing pressure on the American whiskey industry, from trade tensions to changing drinking habits.
Martin Ludvigs is president of IWSR, a firm that provides data and analytics for the beverage alcohol industry.
That certainly plays a big role.
Even when the tariffs hadn't taken effect, Canadian consumers and also the control boards in the various states just took US whiskey off the shelves as a bit of a veto of what was happening in the US.
And so we saw consumption in Canada in particular dropped 46% in the first half of 2025.
So a really, really meaningful decline in one of the bigger export markets for the US.
So From your own data, it shows that US whiskey sales are falling for a second year running after a decade of growth.
Are we at a turning point for US whiskey?
We're certainly in sort of uncharted territory.
The US whiskey boom has been very long lived, very robust, driven both by increases in domestic consumption in the US, which is still the biggest market, as well as really rapidly growing exports.
The downturn that we're seeing now is not unique to U.S. whiskey.
It's happening to the entire industry.
So I don't think it's a US whiskey problem, so much as it is a macro challenge that the industry is facing, driven by a number of factors.
Moderation is definitely one of them.
I think the economic pressure that consumers are under is another.
There's also just sort of shifting preferences, the rise of ready-to-drink beverages.
US whiskey in particular, struggling for another year or two and then it should stabilize and kind of pick back up, mainly driven by those macroeconomic factors.
That was Martin Ludwigs, president of the IWSR.
China has put tariffs at nearly 40 on some dairy products from the European Union starting tomorrow.
Products affected include fresh and processed cheese as well as some kinds of milk and cream.
The move follows an anti-subsidy investigation launched last year.
Beijing argues the EU support for its dairy sector has caused substantial damage to Chinese producers.
The EU says the planned duties were unjustified.
Now India and New Zealand have agreed a new free trade deal that will cut and, in some cases, remove tariffs between the two countries.
The BBC's Archana Shukla is in Mumbai and she's been looking at this one.
It's India and New Zealand coming together for opening up tariff lines.
They're eliminating and reducing tariffs across 95% of the products that the two countries trade in.
It'll become a zero-duty market access for Indian exports and also open up Indian market for New Zealand products internationally.
What's also in discussion are multiple temporary employment visas and easier access for pharmaceuticals and medical devices.
And New Zealand is also committed to investing about $20 billion over 15 years in India.
Have they always had a good trading relationship?
Well, the two countries have had good trading relation, but it's been pretty small as far as India's broader trade and exports are concerned.
The two countries do bilateral trade of about just under $2 billion.
So it's kind of small in number.
But in terms of expanding Purview, expanding the focus areas, especially for New Zealand, to sell their products into the large Indian market with a large consumer base.
Here is something that New Zealand is looking at.
And for India it really drives the next level of diversification that the countries or factories are looking at.
Now that it's been several months with 50 tariffs from its largest trade partner, the US, we've seen India be a very changed country as far as its trade diplomacy is concerned.
They've realised that in the new trade era, they have to open up their markets.
Artina Shukla there.
With me now Kwe Onwen, Chief Investment Officer of Equity Strategies for Research Affiliates based in New York.
Kwe, tell me about the gold and silver prices they have gone nuts.
What is going on?
Well, everybody's really excited about gold and silver going up so much this year.
But if you really look at it, the rally started over two years ago, late in 2023.
And back then it really started because it became clear that the Fed, as well as the ECB, were going to be lowering interest rates.
And so this made the metals a little bit more attractive.
Now, when people talk about gold, a lot of the time they talk about, you know, the gold standard investors choosing gold as a safe haven in turbulent times.
Is this what's happening here?
Well, if you look at equity markets, they've done really, really well this year.
And so it's very unusual for gold and silver to be doing this well when everyone's really excited about the opportunities in risky assets.
And so if you look at it, I think this is really more of an interest rate play.
Interest rates are really supporting equities and they're supporting the metals as well.
Now, another one we have to talk about, oil prices.
Are tensions in Venezuela feeding through to oil prices?
Well, we saw the oil prices jump significantly.
And if you really think about it, Venezuela supplies less than about 1% to global crude exports.
And so the jump of 3% in oil prices seemed to be a little bit of a knee-jerk overreaction.
That said, the blockade isn't necessarily helping oil prices go down.
And ultimately, that's not going to be helpful to consumers.
Okay.
Kwe Onwen, thank you so much for joining us.
Well, thank you.
A court in Switzerland has agreed to hear a landmark climate change case brought by Indonesia residents against the Swiss cement giant Halsum.
Four people from the low-lying island of Paris, which has been repeatedly flooded as sea levels rise, argue the cement industry is not being held accountable for its contribution to global warming.
Halsum, which is the world's largest cement producer, says it plans to appeal the decision.
Johannes Wendland is legal advisor for climate justice at HEX in Switzerland, the non-profit supporting the islanders.
I asked him why this case is focused specifically on wholesome.
From a legal point of view, we were actually not very surprised by the judgment, because what the court did was not reinvent the wheel, far from it.
They just established principles of Swiss procedural law, and the novelty is just that they applied it for the first time to a climate lawsuit such as this.
Why go after Holcim?
Why not go after companies that are closer to the actual climate change?
So Holcim is one of around 180 actors players in the world that have caused most impact on the climate.
So it has an outsized responsibility, actually twice the amount of emissions that all of Switzerland has ever emitted.
So it is this big responsibility that makes Holcim responsible for the impacts, or partially responsible for the impacts, on Parry Island.
If we look at the way that climate change works, it does not matter if you emit in Switzerland or in Indonesia or somewhere else in the world.
Once your emissions have gone into the atmosphere, they will cause damage to people such as the Bari Islanders.
And so the geographical distance is not a reason not to hold them accountable.
What would success look like for the islanders of Parry Island?
Well, the situation now is a big interim success.
That is fair to say, because the court held very clearly that they have standing to sue.
So the plaintiffs say they have been engaged in the protection of the island for years now.
And this decision gives them renewed confidence, hope, courage to continue their fight.
That was Johannes Wendland, Chief Legal Advisor for Climate Justice at HECS.
Now, let's have a listen to this.
And that's it from World Business Express with me, Leanna Byrne.
Thanks so much for listening.
Round off your 2025 with a brilliant podcast from the BBC World Service.
13 Minutes is the podcast telling epic space stories, from the first moon landing to the creation of the Space Shuttle.
Unlike any spacecraft we had ever flown before.
The Con invites you to enter a world where nothing is as it seems.
There was somebody out there who's faking pregnancy.
What does she have to gain from this?
And CyberHack investigates alleged cyber gangs and the heists and hacks they're accused of committing.
The largest cyber criminal case in the FBI.
Search for 13 Minutes, The Con and CyberHack wherever you get your BBC podcasts.
