Trump pauses tariffs on all coffee producers except one

On 9 April, just hours after United States (US) import tariffs came into effect, President Donald Trump has announced a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs.

In the announcement posted on social platform Truth Social, President Trump said all trading countries would  now be subject to a 10 per cent baseline tariff rate, except for China which would be subject to 125 per cent import tariffs effective immediately.

“Based on the lack of respect China has shown to the World’s markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” President Trump said in the post.

According to data from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service, in 2023 the US imported US$22.47 million worth of coffee, coffee husks, and substitutes from China.

The pause will come as good news to many coffee producing countries that were preparing for high import tariffs. In President Trump’s announcement on 2 April, he said from 9 April new duty imports would be introduced for Vietnam (46 per cent), Indonesia (32 per cent), India (26 per cent), Nicaragua (18 per cent), and 10 per cent for Bolivia, Brazil, Burundi, Colombia, Costa Rica, DR Congo, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda, and Yemen.

Following the announcement on 2 April, world coffee prices fell as investors worried President Trump‘s tariffs would damage coffee demand in the world’s top consumer of the product. Following the news of the pause, stocks markets in the US surged, recovering some of the losses from the previous week.