Last month, members of the US House of Representatives introduced legislation that exempting coffee from tariffs. Created by the bipartisan team of Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Don Bacon (R-NE), the bill would retroactively exempt all imported coffee from any tariff imposed after January 19th of this year.
And yesterday, Wednesday, October 29th, a bipartisan pair in Congress’s other half are introducing similar legislation. Spearheaded by Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev) and Rand Paul (R-KY), the bill “would block President Donald Trump’s administration from placing additional tariffs on coffee imports from any country it has normal trade relations with.”
As reported by Semafor, the new bill comes a day after the Senate voted down a resolution to remove the 50% tariff on all Brazilian imports, which includes coffee. Called the “No Coffee Tax Act,” the bill takes a similar stance as the one proposed in the House, stating that “no tariff or other duty may be imposed in excess of the rate assessed as of January 19, 2025.” This will include green and roasted coffee, decaf, as well as coffee skins and husks.
“This coffee tax doesn’t help American business in any serious way, but it does raise costs at the grocery store for hardworking families across the United States,” Cortez Masto said in a statement.
The president has expressed an interest in curbing the rise in coffee prices brought on by tariffs. According to Yahoo! Finance, the president stated on Monday that “we want to get coffee down a little bit,” which could signal a softening on the US stance on tariffs.
Per Yahoo, coffee prices have gone up over 25% since the president took office in January.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
