Trump moves to cut tariffs to ease grocery prices — but relief may be slow

President Donald Trump is reducing some tariffs, and experts say that could help reduce grocery costs. However, don’t expect prices to drop anytime soon.

On Thursday, the White House announced four framework trade agreements with Central and South American countries, which aim to lower trade barriers, including some of the tariffs imposed by Trump earlier in the year. The fact sheets on the deals did not mention specific products on which tariffs would be reduced, but said they would focus on items that cannot be produced in the United States.

The new deals directly address Trump’s controversial economic policy of increasing import taxes on the vast majority of the United States’ trading partners. While Trump and members of his administration have insisted that foreign countries pay the tariffs, business leaders said they are passing them on to American consumers.

Inflation accelerated this year as tariffs took effect, and some heavily imported goods, such as coffee, saw significant price increases. Coffee prices were up 20% over the year as of September, according to the Consumer Price Index, and critics of tariffs have seized on it as an example of how tariffs can raise prices.

Speaking this week with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Trump suggested that dropping tariffs could mitigate rising prices.

“We’re going to lower some tariffs,” he said after Ingraham brought up rising coffee prices. “We will take care of all of these things very quickly and very easily.”

Will you succeed?

Experts said trade agreements could help ease some of the pressure on rising prices, but were unlikely to bring prices down quickly.

“While we may expect some price reductions for affected goods, there is no guarantee that these savings will fully reach consumers,” said Can Arbel, a professor of economics at Boston College and an expert on international trade. “Factors such as supply chain adjustments, wholesale pricing, and retailer decisions can absorb some of the benefits. Additionally, any changes to shelves may take weeks or months to materialize as contracts and logistics adjust.”

Daniel A. said: Sumner, an economics professor at UC Davis who specializes in agricultural economics, said that although the overall impact on the cost of living would be small, the prices of some products could fall significantly.

“For important foods, such as bananas and other fresh produce that are primarily imported and have lower processing and marketing costs, the percentage retail impacts would be significant,” he wrote in an email. “For others, such as beef, where the import share is small and significant U.S. processing and marketing costs may occur, the retail price impacts in percentage terms may be very small.”