WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced Friday that he was scrapping U.S. tariffs on beef, coffee, tropical fruits and a broad swath of other commodities, a dramatic move that comes amid mounting pressure on his administration to better combat high consumer prices.
Trump has built his second term around imposing steep levies on goods imported into the U.S. in hopes of encouraging domestic production and lifting the U.S. economy. His abrupt retreat from his signature tariff policy on so many staples key to the American diet is significant, and it comes after voters in off-year elections this month cited economic concerns as their top issue, resulting in big wins for Democrats in Virginia, New Jersey and other key races around the country.
“We just did a little bit of a rollback on some foods like coffee,” Trump said aboard Air Force One as he flew to Florida hours after the tariff announcement was made. Pressed on his tariffs helping to increase consumer prices, Trump acknowledged, “I say they may, in some cases” have that effect. “But to a large extent they’ve been borne by other countries,” the president added.
Meanwhile, inflation despite Trump’s pronouncements that it has vanished since he took office in January remains elevated, further increasing pressure on U.S. consumers.
The Trump administration has insisted that its tariffs had helped fill government coffers and weren’t a major factor in higher prices at grocery stores around the country. But Democrats were quick to paint Friday’s move as an acknowledgment that Trump’s policies were hurting American pocketbooks. “President Trump is finally admitting what we always knew: his tariffs are raising prices for the American people,” Virginia Democratic Rep. Dosi Beyer said in a statement. “After getting drubbed in recent elections because of voters’ fury that Trump has broken his promises to fix inflation, the White House is trying to cast this tariff retreat as a ‘pivot to affordability'”.
Trump slapped tariffs on most countries around the globe in April. He and his administration still say that tariffs don’t increase consumer prices, despite economic evidence to the contrary. Record-high beef prices have been a particular concern, and Trump had said he intended to take action to try and lower them. Trump’s tariffs on Brazil, a major beef exporter, had been a factor.
