A pair of lawmakers on Friday introduced bipartisan legislation to exempt coffee from President Trump’s tariffs – as Americans are already swallowing higher prices.
The bill – penned by Reps. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) and Ro Khanna (D-California) – includes exemptions for roasted and decaffeinated coffee, coffee husks, skins and other drinks containing coffee from any tariff imposed since Trump took office, according to a copy of the bill obtained by The Post. The Washington Post earlier reported the news.
“Why are we tariffing American citizens on something that we don’t even grow? It doesn’t make sense,” Bacon told the Washington Post.
“Families across America are feeling the cost of higher coffee prices… and tariffing a product we can’t grow at a large, commercial scale, only makes it worse,” he added in a statement to The Post.
Bacon and Khanna said they focused on coffee because they want to help Americans save on an everyday staple.
And coffee prices have already soared nearly 21% since this time last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“If you drink coffee every morning, how can you not be mad about that?” Khanna told The Post in a statement.
While Bacon and Khanna are aware that the bill has a slim chance of passing through Congress, the representatives are hoping it will help build up opposition to the Trump administration’s tariffs.
“If [Americans are] like, ‘Okay, this coffee tax, we don’t like this’ — well, what about the fact that now we have a tariff that is causing your hamburger’s price to go up, that’s causing the price of bananas to go up, apples are up?” Khanna told the Washington Post.
“We can talk about it more broadly, in terms of the prices going up because of tariffs.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Coffee prices have been particularly hard hit because the vast majority of American consumption is imported from foreign nations.
While there is some domestic production in Hawaii, Puerto Rico and California, it’s nowhere near enough to satisfy US demand for coffee beans.
So the US is heavily reliant on imports from Brazil, Vietnam, Colombia and Nicaragua – which are currently facing tariffs of 50%, 20%, 10% and 18%, respectively, under the Trump administration.
The problem is being compounded by a global shortage of coffee beans as average temperatures are on the rise and precipitation patterns are shifting, bringing severe droughts and floods to key trading partners.
Brazil has faced its most severe drought in 70 years, while Vietnam was slammed with flooding after a monthslong drought. The two nations are the world’s top coffee producers – accounting for 56% of the global supply.
Changes in the climate can also leave crops more vulnerable to diseases, further slashing overall yields for farmers.
The coffee shortage won’t go unnoticed, with two-thirds of American adults drinking coffee every day, according to the National Coffee Association.
Khanna and Bacon said it’s an uphill battle to win the exemption – needing to garner enough support to get the bill through a GOP-controlled House, past the Senate’s 60-vote threshold and then to Trump’s own desk.
“The real goal is to get Trump to shift,” Khanna told the Washington Post.
The Trump administration has already carved out several tariff exemptions for goods like critical minerals, pharmaceuticals and cork.
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