America is in the middle of a trade war with what feels like the rest of the world. Luckily, trade wars are fun and super easy to win, so I’ll just sit back and watch all the fun and the winning from the comforts of my American-made Ikea POÄNG (I turned the Allen wrench, therefore it’s technically American made, ok). But until all the messy details of the winning get ironed out, other countries are being real meanies about the whole war and slapping tariffs on American goods. Eater has been keeping a running list of things seeing anywhere between a 10% and 25% tax added to the top, and that list now includes coffee.
The trade war has escalated quickly since Trump signed an “executive memo to tax up to $60 billion worth of Chinese imports with the intent of penalizing China for unfair trade practices.” China then went tit-for-tat with $60 billion worth of their of tariffs, which then led the American “leader” to “I’m rubber and your glue” the whole situation with an added $200 billion in tariffs earlier this month.
Now it’s China’s turn to spin the wheel of calamity, and their newest round of tariffs include a tax on coffee, taking effect today, September 24th. It is unclear exactly how much in additional taxes will be placed on coffee.
And it’s not just China who is penalizing the American coffee industry. Our friends and allies to the north Canada—CANADA! We are openly feuding with Canada now?!—have also implemented retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. According to Eater, the Great White North having been taxing American goods since July 1st, including a 10% fee on coffee, non-decaf.
Back in 2016 we openly wondered if Trump—who famously claims to have “never had a cup of coffee”—would be bad for the coffee industry. “If elected,” we wrote, “would President Trump ban coffee? Only time will tell.” Welp—time has told us that Trump’s Game of Tariffs is, at the very least, going to make the global commerce of coffee needlessly more expensive, at a time when the global coffee market can least afford such pointless belligerence.
Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
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Source: Coffee News
