Trump is rolling back Tariffs on dozens of food products

Question

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to sweep tariff exemptions for a range of food products, including common products like coffee, bananas, beef, avocados, and tomatoes. The administration officially justified the recent action by stating that an insufficient amount of the product could be produced domestically. However, this decision represents a significant policy reversal by the Trump administration, as it follows mounting pressure over the rise in prices for food products and a poor electoral performance by the Republican Party in recent elections. Eceonomists have long warned that the cost of Trumps baseline 10% tariffs would be passed directly to consumers, which has been validated by the 2.7% increase in grocery prices over the last year.

The tariff exemptions represent a direct acknowledgment by the Trump administration that the tariffs are contributing to the rising cost of living, contradicting the president's past dismissal of affordability concerns. The administration also announced that it would lower import taxes on coffee and bananas as part of the framework trade deals with four Latin American countries, aiming to tackle the jump in US coffee prices of around 20% in the last year.

Answer 1

After researching this claim on my own, I found that it is indeed true that President Trump is "rolling back" tariffs on some food products. These mainly include produce, such as bananas, tomatoes, avocados, and coconuts, along with other products such as coffee and beef. This newfound focus on the issue of tariffs comes after the Republican Party's poor performance in the recent midterm elections. These tariffs were previously put into place to reduce the United States trade deficit, according to President Trump.

One primary source I found online that backs this up is from the Federal Register's website, which is the official daily journal of the United States Government. The source features Donald J. Trump's official statement of the argument for manufacturing to be produced only in the U.S., and he calls for reciprocal tariffs. This source corroborates part of the above claim that Trump had placed tariffs on many imports.

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/04/07/2025-06063/regulating-imports-with-a-reciprocal-tariff-to-rectify-trade-practices-that-contribute-to-large-and

Another primary source I found was from the official White House website, where the products that are no longer subject to reciprocal tariffs are listed. The list includes coffee, the same produce listed above, and beef, along with some other food products. The website states that these products have been removed from both annexes, and the modified Annex II and PTAAP Annex are attached to the Order on the website. This primary source corroborates the above claim completely.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/11/fact-sheet-following-trade-deal-announcements-president-donald-j-trump-modifies-the-scope-of-the-reciprocal-tariffs-with-respect-to-certain-agricultural-products/

There is a possibility for some potential bias in these primary sources, since the Trump Administration has been known to have bias even in official documents or reports. However, these two primary sources state facts about the tariffs, and the wording regarding the Annexes and tariffs does not contain any bias.