The tariff exemption is expected to include beef and citrus fruits, but sources said President Trump has not made a final decision yet. In particular, the U.S. livestock industry has opposed the expansion of beef imports, saying it goes against President Trump's policy philosophy to expand production in the U.S.
NYT said there are also disagreements within the administration as tariff exemptions could stimulate livestock farmers and farmers, who are key support bases for the Trump administration. If the food tariff exemption currently under consideration is actually implemented, President Trump will retreat from his core economic policy due to the growing burden of shopping cart prices on the U.S. people.
U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Rutnick has been actively pursuing related tariff exemptions, citing high food prices, according to two sources.
The plan is a further step from the tariff exemption measures included in the executive order in September. At that time, it was limited to items imported by the administration from countries with trade agreements among products that were difficult to produce in the United States.
The September executive order instructed Rutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to decide whether to exempt more than 1,000 product lines, including metals, minerals, antibiotics, plane parts, coffee and pineapples.
Food prices have risen sharply this year in the aftermath of tariffs, with coffee prices in the U.S. soaring about 19% year-on-year as of September. In local elections held in parts of the U.S. on the 4th, the Democratic Party won by intensively targeting the Trump administration's price problem.
The U.S. has decided to remove or lower tariffs on agricultural products imported from Latin America, including coffee, bananas, cocoa and beef. The White House issued a joint statement on the "Mutual Trade Agreement Framework" with Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador, respectively. A White House official told the New York Times that the tariff exemption measures on coffee, cocoa and bananas are expected to have a positive effect on prices.
On the 12th, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant mentioned coffee and bananas in an interview with Fox News, saying, "There will be significant announcements about things that are not grown in the United States over the next few days," adding, "Prices will fall very quickly."
However, the NYT pointed out that it is unclear how much the tariff exemption will affect U.S. prices. This is because many of the agricultural products imported into the United States are already imported from Canada and Mexico, which receive significant tariff exemptions.
Reporter Oh Soo-yeon [email protected]
While claiming that inflation and tariffs are unrelated, the U.S. President is actually trying to curb inflation through various tariff-free items.
It’s impossible to know how much more suffering he will inflict on the people and the country.