FIRST ON FOX: Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Don Bacon, R-Neb., are urging President Donald Trump to exempt coffee from reciprocal tariff measures that are "drastically increasing its price."
Coffee prices were up 20.9% from a year ago in August, according to the most recent edition of the consumer price index (CPI) released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In a letter to Trump on Wednesday, Khanna and Bacon asked Trump to remove coffee from his reciprocal tariffs in order to bring prices down for the two out of three Americans who drink coffee every day, according to the National Coffee Association.
"We respectfully request your administration exempt coffee from reciprocal tariff measures that are drastically increasing its price," Khanna and Bacon said, according to the letter obtained by Fox News Digital. "The administration can do this by adding coffee (both green beans, as well as roasted and ground products) to Annex II of Executive Order 14257. Given that our nation consumes around 400 million cups per day, this action is one modest but meaningful way to help the American people."
Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs included a list of exempt goods, but coffee isn't on the list. As Trump's universal reciprocal tariffs seek to level the playing field for international trade, the congressmen said coffee does not have "a viable large-scale domestic alternative."
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"Though Hawaii and Puerto Rico grow small quantities of specialty coffee, domestic production accounts for less than 1 percent of all the coffee consumed by Americans. Tariffs on coffee do not protect domestic businesses and interests—they only raise costs and amount to an additional tax on American consumers. It is not practical to tariff a product that our nation does not meaningfully produce," the bipartisan congressmen said in their letter to Trump.
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According to the National Coffee Association, 99% of coffee is imported from outside the U.S.
"I'm always with a coffee mug, so it's a personal issue for me, and we're hoping that the president recognizes this as part of his exemption," Khanna told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview.
Khanna, who represents California's Silicon Valley in the U.S. House of Representatives, said his constituents tell him they are concerned about tariffs impacting the economy.
"I've heard from a lot of small business owners, coffee shops actually, and a lot of them are facing real pressures. Some may go out of business if this coffee tariff remains," Khanna said, while also explaining that hospitality workers are experiencing increased costs and consumers are seeing prices go up.
Khanna said he hopes the letter sparks a "broader conversation about repealing the tariffs on food products, and particularly food products that we basically don't grow in the United States."
More than half of Americans drink coffee every day, including Khanna's Republican colleague, Bacon, who is retiring from representing Nebraska's 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
Khanna and Bacon traveled to Mexico earlier this year for a meeting with President Claudia Sheinbaum, which was aimed at developing a more "constructive approach" to Trump's tariffs.
The bipartisan duo also teamed up last month to introduce the "No Coffee Tax Act," seeking to repeal the Trump administration’s tariffs on coffee.
"There is no American alternative to coffee," Bacon told Fox News Digital. "Why tariff something we can't grow? All you are doing is punishing Americans."
Bacon, one of few House Republicans who has been willing to push back against the Trump administration's second term, introduced legislation to return tariff control to Congress earlier this year.
"I've always been honest. I try to be tactful, but I have always pushed back where I thought there was a big concern," Bacon said. "I want to do what's right, despite what anybody thinks."
The retiring congressman said his constituents are feeling the impact of Trump's tariffs on the economy, particularly soybean farmers who have been unable to sell their goods.
"I feel a little freer to do it since I announced, but I don't know that I would have done it any differently," Bacon said, explaining that pushing back on Trump's tariffs is one of his top priorities as he closes out his final term.
When reached for comment, White House spokesman Kush Desai told Fox News Digital, "Ro Khanna doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The President has included coffee in a recent executive order breaking down goods that are eligible for tariff-free treatment as part of trade deals. Coffee prices globally are also near historic highs because of supply woes in coffee-growing regions of the world, not tariffs."
