First Minister John Swinney has flown to the United States to make a fresh appeal for better trade terms for Scotch whisky.

US President Donald Trump has imposed a 10% tax, known as a tariff, on whisky and most other UK goods when they enter the US market.

The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has argued for an exemption or a relaxation of the rules for the lucrative export – a call supported by the Scottish and UK governments.

Swinney is staying with UK ambassador Lord Mandelson in Washington DC.

The first minister’s spokesman refused to comment on whether Swinney was comfortable staying with Mandelson in the light of reports he was once a friend of convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

The spokesman also declined to comment on whether the first minister would raise the Epstein issue with Mandelson at a scheduled breakfast meeting.

Mandelson, a former Labour minister, has said he regrets ever meeting Epstein.

Swinney’s trip to the US is his second this year. In April, he visited New York during the annual Tartan Week celebrations.

Trump is due to visit the UK this month for a state visit, following a four-day trip to his Scottish golf resorts in July.

The first minister said he raised the issue of whisky tariffs directly with Trump – whose mother was born on the Isle of Lewis – when they met in Aberdeenshire.

On the plane that took him back to the US, the president seemed to play down the extent of their conversation.

However, Swinney believes the US administration is open to further discussion and he is seeking to press the case before Trump’s second state visit to the UK, from 17 to 19 September.

The Scottish government has arranged a series of meetings for the first minister in and around Washington DC.

It is not clear whether he will have a further talks with the president, and he is not expected to agree a deal during the two-day visit.

The SWA, which is working with the equivalent trade body in the US, has said that about a fifth of all Scotch whisky is exported to the US.

The body said that market was worth £971m in 2024, with the tariffs costing the industry £4m a week.

Scottish External Affairs Secretary Angus Robertson said he could not comment on whether the first minister would meet Trump.

However, he told BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland that Swinney would meet people that were “intimately involved” in setting tariff rates, as well as the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Robertson said that there was an appetite in Washington to discuss an exemption for whisky because of its “inextricable links with the US bourbon sector”, with Scotch typically aged in used bourbon casks.

“Making tariff decisions that would impact negatively on bourbon will impact negatively on Scotch and it doesn’t need to be that way,” he told the programme.

“So that’s why Scotland’s first minister is, I think all reasonable people would expect, pressing the case for one of Scotland’s most important industries.”

SWA director Graeme Littlejohn that over the duration of Trump’s second term in office, $1.2bn (£0.88bn) of old bourbon casts were expected to be sent to Scotland from the US for maturation of Scotch.

“We’re seeing less Scotch whisky going into the market and we’re seeing damage done to the industry,” he told Good Morning Scotland.

“That means less trade to not only those cask manufacturers – those cooperages – but also to wholesale distribution and hospitality across the United States.

“Getting the tariffs back down to zero for Scotch whisky would obviously benefit Scotland and the industry directly, but it would also be a good thing for the US industry and for the US economy.”

In 2019, during Trump’s first presidency, the US imposed a 25% tariff on Scotch whisky exports.

That stemmed from a dispute between the US and the EU over subsidies given to rival airplane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing. The UK was tangled up in the row as a former EU member.

Those trade barriers were estimated to have cost the Scotch industry more than £600m in exports before they were suspended for five years in 2021.

That agreement is due to expire in June 2026, with the SWA calling for the dispute to be permanently resolved to ensure the higher rate is not reimposed.