United States (US) Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has braced the global coffee community for updates regarding President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the product by stating there will be “substantial announcements” in the coming days aimed at lowering prices of products not grown in the US.
In an interview on Fox and Friends earlier this week, Bessent doubled down on President Trump’s earlier statements about lowering tariffs on coffee-producing nations.
“You’re going to see some specific announcements in coming days in terms of things we don’t grow here in the United States,” says Bessent.
“Coffee being one of them, bananas, other fruits, things like that.”
The US coffee industry has previously called for the exception of tariffs on coffee due to its inability to be grown throughout most of the country.
According to the US Department of Agriculture, the United States produced about 50,000 bags of coffee between October 2024 and September 2025, with production limited to regions including Hawaii and Puerto Rico.
Meanwhile, it imported more than 1.38 million tonnes of the product in 2023.
Currently, there are extensive tariffs placed on some of the world’s major coffee-producing nations, with products from leading producer Brazil being slugged with a 50 per cent import tax – however the US Senate passed legislation in late October that it would overturn the tariffs.
US roaster Coffee Bros opened a petition to remove all coffee imports from tariffs back in April, which currently has close to 15,000 signatures.
