Coffee could now be among a group of resources that are exempted from the United States’ (US) tariff policy according to US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, who says President Donald Trump has agreed to a zero-tariff policy for natural resources not grown in the US.
Speaking on CNBC, Lutnick says the potential natural resource tariff exemption will only apply to countries that have agreed trade deals with the US.
“If you grow something and we don’t grow it, that can come in for zero,” says Lutnick. “If we do a deal with a country that grows mangos, pineapples, then they can come in without a tariff.
“Coffee and cocoa would be other examples of natural resources.”
A trade deal with the world’s fourth-largest producer of coffee, Indonesia, has been closed in recent days, with a tariff rate of 19 per cent agreed.
Within the agreement is an allusion to natural resources, where it states the US “may identify certain commodities that are not naturally available or domestically produced in the United States for a further reduction in the reciprocal tariff rate”.
A trade deal was also brokered with the world’s largest producer of Robusta coffee, Vietnam in early July.
The US is the world’s largest consumer of coffee, however Hawaii and Puerto Rico are its only territories that commercially grow coffee. Overall, the US produces less than one per cent of the coffee it consumes.
The threat of a 50 per cent tariff on all Brazilian goods from 1 August 2025 is still hanging over the coffee industry, however, no trade deal has yet been struck between the world’s largest producer of coffee and the US.
