(Nov. 20) President Donald Trump is spectacularly mercurial in economic policy decisions, but for now, Louisiana is benefiting from his latest policy effusions.
Indeed, the state’s economy received two major boosts from the Trump administration in the past 10 days, one related to coffee and one to energy production — although the first boost stems from Trump reversing one of his own, misbegotten policies.
The policy reversal involves Trump’s bizarre fetish for import tariffs. Every observer with an ounce of sense recognized that at least in the near term, U.S. consumer prices would rise on just about every good or item subject to higher tariffs. Trump all along has insisted that foreigners, not Americans, actually pay tariffs, but of course, that’s just factually incorrect. Now, though, with the average U.S. family paying $700 more so far this year for “basic” items, a recent poll shows the public largely blaming the tariffs, of which the public disapproves by a nearly two-to-one margin. The public is right. From a standpoint of basic economics, most of Trump’s tariffs make no sense….
as a clear political necessity, Trump on Nov. 14 abandoned his tariffs on coffee, along with those on bananas, tomatoes and other foods used almost everyday in American home kitchens.
The removal of the coffee tariffs is doubly good news for Louisiana. Not only are Louisiana consumers likely to pay less for our cups of joe going forward, but our job base should benefit significantly.
This newspaper in the past eight months has featured a number of news and opinion pieces highlighting the importance of the coffee trade in Louisiana, along with the damage done to it by the tariffs. Coffee comes through several Louisiana ports and is an especially important commodity at the Port of New Orleans. In 2024, before the Trump coffee tariffs took effect, coffee was, by value, the fourth largest item imported in New Orleans, at slightly more than $1 billion….
Meanwhile, Trump needed no reversal in policies in order to help Louisiana’s oil and gas industry. He has always been strongly pro-oil exploration. On Nov. 11, that inclination bore fruit as the administration released a call for energy-company bids for some 80 million acres in the central and western Gulf…..
[The full column is at this link.]
