Trump’s 50% Brazil coffee tariff expected to rejig trade, send more beans to China
A 50% tariff on some Brazilian products, including coffee, will begin on August 6
It’s actually not in force for a few more days. I would also assume that insofar as is possible, importers will import stock ahead of the deadline, so it’ll probably delay impact.
Why not just bulk up on stock and then raise prices without necessarily needing to to maximize profits but blaming the tariffs as of day one? I don’t see why this wouldn’t happen
Competition, same thing that normally limits prices. You don’t need to “blame” tariffs to raise prices — you can just raise them. If you’re the only vendor of coffee in the US, you can increase prices without losing sales. But I’d expect that anyone who selling coffee or another item that can be stored and is going to have a significant increase in tariffs will try to get stock in before that. Raise prices and you lose sales to other parties.
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/trumps-50-brazil-coffee-tariff-expected-rejig-trade-send-more-beans-china-2025-08-01/
It’s actually not in force for a few more days. I would also assume that insofar as is possible, importers will import stock ahead of the deadline, so it’ll probably delay impact.
Why not just bulk up on stock and then raise prices without necessarily needing to to maximize profits but blaming the tariffs as of day one? I don’t see why this wouldn’t happen
Competition, same thing that normally limits prices. You don’t need to “blame” tariffs to raise prices — you can just raise them. If you’re the only vendor of coffee in the US, you can increase prices without losing sales. But I’d expect that anyone who selling coffee or another item that can be stored and is going to have a significant increase in tariffs will try to get stock in before that. Raise prices and you lose sales to other parties.