A Brooklyn-based distillery said it received notice last week that a shipment it sent to British Columbia for a Canadian trade show was stopped and denied entry into the county, as part of a total pause of liquor importing into Canada in response to tariffs.

The email, sent to Kings County Distillery owner Sebastian Oja, told him that the shipment was blocked from entry, and that his company had to pay for shipping it back to the U.S. or risk it being destroyed.

"This sucks, this product was not even for sale, it was part of a sample, it just shows off the brand, and yet it's still blocked," Oja said.

He added that the contents of the shipment were hundreds of dollars in value.

Instead of finding new customers, those bottles instead were shipped back to Brooklyn, at great expense, according to Oja.

"We had to pay to ship it by air, as is required by the province, and then ship it back, plus the cost of not being able to be at the show, and have people sample and learn about us," he said.

Oja says sales outside the U.S. make up about 10% of his business, and they had just shipped out product to Canadian suppliers in January.

"If that had been the order that was turned around, that would have been around $10,000," he said. "For the foreseeable future, we can ship no more product, it just doesn't seem like any international business is something we can rely on."

But that's not the only squeeze tariffs are putting on his businesses.

He says the 750 ml bottles that his bourbon and whiskey are sold in are a custom job from a UK glass plant, with the only alternatives available to best fit their volume coming from production in Italy, and a since shuttered factory in Ukraine.

He says the corks that keep the glasses sealed are also imported.

Oja says he is left unable to do long-term planning with his business and believes small businesses like his will be hurt most by a trade war.

"We are just trying to make good product that speaks for itself, every sale matters every dollar matters so I'm not going to sleep happy about this for sure." Oja said.