The National Coffee Association told the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on Wednesday, July 8, that Brazilian coffee should stay out of a new round of import taxes, warning that fresh duties would push already-steep grocery prices higher for the tens of millions of Americans who drink coffee every day.

William Murray, president and chief executive of the National Coffee Association, made the case in testimony at a public hearing in Washington tied to the government’s review of trade with Brazil. He asked officials to protect green, unroasted coffee that is already exempt and to add unflavored instant coffee to the tax-free list, calling both essential to keeping coffee affordable and U.S. coffee companies competitive.

The economic stakes are substantial. Murray told the panel that protecting coffee matters for more than 176 million daily American coffee drinkers and a domestic coffee economy he valued at about $343 billion. Instant coffee alone, he said, is consumed by nearly 30 million adults each day and serves as a base for cold brew, flavorings, extracts and the fast-growing category of canned, ready-to-drink coffee.

The hearing is part of a Section 301 investigation run by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative into Brazil’s trade practices, spanning complaints from digital-commerce rules to illegal deforestation. Out of that review, the government could place a 25% tariff on a list of Brazilian goods. A separate measure has already added a 12.5% charge on products from more than 60 countries, instant coffee among them.

Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer and supplies about a third of what the United States drinks, which makes any tax on its beans hard to dodge at the register. Last year, Washington imposed a 50% tariff on Brazilian imports that threw the U.S. coffee trade into turmoil before officials carved out green coffee. Instant coffee stayed taxed at 50% until the Supreme Court struck down most of the administration’s blanket tariffs; it now carries a 10% global rate.

Murray said the earlier duties fed what he called “highly visible price inflation on popular products,” squeezing the companies that turn beans into everyday goods. His core argument to regulators was practical: the country cannot grow its way out of a coffee tax. Farms in Hawaii and Puerto Rico cover only a sliver of demand, and the United States produces less than 6% of the instant coffee it uses.

The pain would not stop at the supermarket shelf. Higher bean costs ripple through corner coffee shops, diners and national restaurant chains that price a cup on thin margins, through grocery retailers that lean on coffee to draw shoppers, and through the food manufacturers that fold coffee into syrups, creamers, ice cream and bottled drinks. The National Coffee Association notes that roughly 99% of U.S. coffee is imported, so there is no domestic supply to cushion the blow.

Brazilian producers pressed the same point from the other side of the table. Representatives of Abics, the Brazilian Soluble Coffee Industry Association, and the exporter group Cecafe appeared at the Washington hearings alongside the American association. Aguinaldo José de Lima, executive director of Abics, said more than 90% of Brazil’s instant coffee is bound for the U.S. market — about 15,500 metric tons a year — and that no other supplier can match that volume at a similar price. The first hit from any new tariff, he said, would land on companies and jobs before reaching shoppers.

Relief at the register looks distant regardless of the ruling. In a London interview reported by Bloomberg, Giuseppe Lavazza, chairman of the Italian roaster Lavazza, said retail coffee prices are unlikely to fall for at least two years, citing tight global supply, weather damage to crops in Brazil and Vietnam, and speculation that has driven futures to record levels. He described the market’s instability as “the new constant.”

Coffee has become a recurring flashpoint in the tariff fight precisely because almost none of it grows on American soil. Lawmakers in both parties, including Representative Don Bacon and Representative Ro Khanna, have pushed the White House to leave the drink alone, arguing that taxing a product the country cannot realistically produce simply raises costs for households.

For now the decision sits with trade officials weighing the Section 301 findings. Murray asked them to extend the existing exemptions rather than reopen them, telling the panel that keeping coffee tariff-free would benefit both the broader economy and the millions of Americans who start each day with a cup. A ruling is expected in the weeks ahead.

JBizNews Desk | Washington
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