COFFEE GROUNDS

Tarifs are taxes on imported goods mainly used to keep domestic businesses competitive with foreign alternatives. For US businesses, these are often critical protections - for coffee, however, they simply don't make sense.

Specialty coffee grown in Hawaii and Puerto Rico makes up a fraction of a percent of the total coffee consumed in the United States. This means that tariffs on US coffee don't create or preserve American jobs, they simply raise prices. Which is exactly what happened: August saw the fastest monthly increase in coffee prices since 1997. [1]

Luckily, this is finally being recognized by goverment officials. Trump, earlier in the week, said simply: “We want to get coffee down a little bit.” And on September 19th representivies Don Bacon (R-Neb.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) (yes, bipartisan) put forward the 'No Coffee Tax Act' [2] which would exempt green coffee, roasted coffee and coffee byproducts from the new tariffs. Currently, the bill awaits review in the house.