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Posted on 11/14/2025 6:29:27 AM PST by lasereye
The Trump administration on Thursday said import taxes on coffee and bananas will be lowered as part of trade deals with four Latin American countries.
The agreements with Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador and Ecuador come as US President Donald Trump faces scrutiny over his handling of the economy and concerns about affordability.
As part of an initial framework, a reciprocal tariff of 10% will stay on goods from Guatemala, Argentina and El Salvador, as will a 15% rax on imports from Ecuador into the US. But the deals will exempt products that cannot be produced in the US "in sufficient quantities," such as coffee.
The US-Argentina deal also addresses beef producers' access to foreign markets.
Trump previously downplayed concerns about cost of living, insisting the outlook had improved during his nine months in office. He said affordability was a "new word", and a "con job" by Democrats.
But he has focused on the issue with some urgency since his Republican Party's poor performance in last week's off-year elections across a handful of states.
This week, Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent both vowed to lower coffee prices, which have jumped about 20% in the US this year. Bessent also signalled relief on tariffs on bananas and other fruits.
Senior administration officials on Thursday singled out coffee, cocoa and bananas as examples of imports from the four Latin American countries that are poised to escape tariffs.
Guatemala and Ecuador are the biggest exporters of bananas to the US.
While the US does import coffee from Central American countries including Guatemala, Brazil is the top coffee exporter to the US, according to data from the Agriculture Department, and is not covered by the deal.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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Additionally, they are tariffing some things where the jobs created would likely be low paying - if they actually do create jobs. It's not clear that they will actually create any jobs anyway.
Trump is polling badly on the economy. As Trump noted, the Democrats made "affordability" a campaign theme. It's makes me wonder if Navarro is a Democrat plant.
Why doesn’t he put tariffs on the miggies that all of the turd world countries are sneaking into America. They bass turds should be paying us to house and feed their scumbags, drug cartels and freeloaders.
Tariffs on these because we produce so much coffee and so many bananas right here at home in the US. What will banana and coffee growers do now that Trump has opened the flood gates to import of these strategic food stuffs? It will create an existential threat to our national well being.
/s
Why in the first place were there ever tariffs on these things? More of the ham fisted way this whole affair has been clumsily handled. Like a bull in a china shop.
The cost of coffee is outrageous. We spent $21 on a large container of ground coffee.
....Trump is polling badly on the economy. As Trump noted, the Democrats made “affordability” a campaign theme. It’s makes me wonder if Navarro is a Democrat plant.
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Another reason he’s polling poorly on the economy is that he spends too much time trying to be the world’s policeman, and win the Nobel prize, rather than taking the MAGA case to the American people via major policy addresses. He needs to be fighting the filibuster, rather than fighting our non-enemy Russia and forcing Netanyahoo into a truce with terrorists.
“More of the ham fisted way this whole affair has been clumsily handled.”
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The whole tariff thing has been a mess. There’s a shoot-from-the-hip aspect to them. It doesn’t look like there was ever any kind of plan or well thought out framework from the get go.
I don’t dispute the need to adjust tariffs where there are abusive practices. But an easier and less disruptive approach would have been a “step” strategy (i.e., start out with small base increases and adjust upward from there as necessary when countries are not reasonably cooperative with us). Sharply jacking up tariffs during a time of inflationary pressures has only added to that problem.
The American consumer and businesses have felt the pain from the ham fisted way the administration has handled the tariffs IMO. And its going to have political consequences if not quickly settled so that prices can stabilize.
LOL. There are people who think that makes sense.
That's what I was expecting. Trump and his team look incompetent with their "tariffs on everything all at once" policy.
What Trump ought to be doing is putting together a more reasonable package of tariffs, and getting those through Congress. Because the IEEPA ones aren't going to be around for much longer anyway.
“The cost of coffee is outrageous.”
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It absolutely is. We drink one cup of good coffee a day; if we want a second cup we use the cheaper store brand.
“Another reason he’s polling poorly on the economy is that he spends too much time trying to be the world’s policeman, and win the Nobel prize, rather than taking the MAGA case to the American people via major policy addresses.”
***************
I couldn’t agree more. Two more distractions are his White House architectural and design projects and naming NFL stadiums after himself. He spends way too much time with foreign leaders and their NEVER ENDING conflicts and disputes. Let the talk with Rubio and Vance if they want, but Trump should be focused like a laser beam on the economy and putting America First every single day.
If he doesn’t re-focus on what matters to most Americans the GOP is going to get run over in the mid-terms. As they say, it’s the economy stupid!
I agree.
I know it’s Folgers, but 3#(+-)for $4.50 at Costco. I’ll give it a try.
Meanwhile, 600,000 Chinese spies at our universities? No problem!
Sad but true.
I am afraid all you have written is true and did think that from the beginning. I was thoroughly pilloried for those thoughts. The tariff chart from the beginning was either misleading, misguided, just wrong or an intentional lie. Take your pick.
There is absolutely no doubt that there have been and still are unequal trade practices against the US but not this way. I have seen this ham fisted kill them all and let god sort it out approach before and it always leave wreck and ruin and confusion in its wake. I don’t know where it comes from but the process is not original. Business schools? I have never attended Wharton or any of the others thank goodness I did not waste my time on that.
Hopefully Bissinet is right and we will begin to see positive effects in the next year but I also fear it will not save the mid-terms. Time will tell.
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