United States (US) President Donald Trump has threatened to introduce tariffs of 24 to 40 per cent from 1 August unless countries agree to make certain concessions on trade.
Included in the levies set to begin on 1 August is a blanket tariff of 32 per cent on major coffee producer Indonesia.
Global trade data distribution platform The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) cites Indonesia exported a total of approximately US$1.1 billion worth of coffee around the world in 2023, US$275 million of which was imported into the US.
The US is by far the largest importer of Indonesian coffee in the world, with the next largest importers being Egypt (US$90 million) and Malaysia (US$73.3 million).
Indonesia had previously been subject to the US-imposed baseline 10 per cent tariff and is the fourth-largest producer of coffee in the world.
Malaysia, which accounts for roughly 0.8 per cent of the world’s coffee production according to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), will be subject to a 25 per cent tariff rate as part of the announcement.
The USDA says Laos is responsible for 0.2 per cent of global coffee production. At this stage it is set to be subjected to a 40 per cent tariff rate.
The other 11 countries under President Trump’s microscope for this round of tariff increases are Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Bangladesh, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Serbia, South Africa, and Tunisia.
Speaking to reporters about the 1 August deadline, President Trump called it “firm” but not “100 per cent firm”. He also said the deadline was dependent on if the countries in question “call up and say [they] would like to do something a different way, we’re going to be open to that.”
The US recently struck a trade deal with Vietnam, with Trump outlining on Truth Social that Vietnamese goods will face a 20 per cent tariff, while trans-shipments from third countries through Vietnam will face a 40 per cent levy.
A petition launched by US specialty coffee company Coffee Bros. calling for the government to exempt coffee from tariffs was launched in April, and has since gained more than 13,000 signatures.
Coffee Bros. asserts “coffee cannot be manufactured at large scale in the United States, and treating it as a domestic product under trade policy is harmful and shortsighted”.
