Dozen House Members Ask for Coffee to Be Excluded From Tariffs
A bipartisan group in the House publicized a letter they sent last month to U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, asking him to remove 10% tariffs on coffee, and to avoid hiking tariffs on coffee beans in future deals.
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Rep. Jill Tokuda, a Democrat from Hawaii, the only U.S. state where coffee grows, and Rep. William Timmons, R-S.C., led the effort, which was joined by five other Democrats and five other Republicans across the ideological spectrum.
"Unlike many other goods affected by recent tariffs, coffee is not produced at a scale within the United States that can meet domestic demand. Though small quantities of predominantly specialty coffee are grown in Hawai’i and Puerto Rico, their combined production accounts for less than 1 percent of U.S. coffee consumption," they wrote.
They also argued that imposing tariffs on coffee hurts relationships with Latin American countries and drives them toward China.