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US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to exempt a wide range of food imports, including beef, tomatoes, coffee and bananas, from sweeping tariffs imposed earlier this year on nearly every country.
The move means Australian beef — one of Australia’s leading exports to the US — will no longer be subject to a 10 per cent tariff.
The order is part of a major push by Trump and his top officials to address Americans’ growing concerns about persistently high grocery prices.
The new exemptions — which take effect retroactively at midnight on Thursday — mark a sharp reversal for Trump, who has long insisted that his import duties are not fuelling inflation.
Recent Democratic wins in state and local elections across Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City have highlighted the issue of affordability as a central concern for voters.
It said any refunds due would be processed under the rules and procedures of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Trump has upended the global trading system by imposing a 10 per cent base tariffs on imports from every country, plus additional specific duties that vary from state to state.
Friday’s order followed framework trade deals announced on Thursday that will eliminate tariffs on certain foods and other items imported from Argentina, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador, once those deals are finalised, with US officials eyeing additional deals before the year’s end.
In response, former President Donald Trump has been zeroing in on affordability, attributing rising costs to policies implemented by President Joe Biden. Trump has distanced his own tariff policies from being a cause of the increased expenses.
Consumers have remained frustrated over high grocery prices, which economists say have been fuelled in part by import tariffs and could rise further next year as companies start passing on the full brunt of the import duties.
The top Democrat on the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, Richard Neal, said the Trump administration was “putting out a fire that they started and claiming it as progress”.
“The Trump Administration is finally admitting publicly what we’ve all known from the start: Trump’s Trade War is hiking costs on people,” Neal said in a statement.
“Since implementing these tariffs, inflation has increased and manufacturing has contracted month after month.”
