Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) hot take on how tariffs on Colombian goods may lead to higher coffee prices for Americans left a burnt and bitter aftertaste for many on social media.
President Donald Trump and Colombian President Gustavo Petro were at loggerheads when the leader of the South American country would not accept flights of deported Colombian migrants from America.
In reaction to this Trump swiftly announced emergency 25 percent tariffs on goods coming into the United States from Colombia.
The president said, “We will not allow the Colombian Government to violate its legal obligations with regard to the acceptance and return of the Criminals they forced into the United States!”
On Sunday, the New York progressive said that Americans would pay the price for Trump’s proposed tariffs.
“To ‘punish’ Colombia, Trump is about to make every American pay even more for coffee. Remember: WE pay the tariffs, not Colombia,” she wrote on X.
“Trump is all about making inflation WORSE for working class Americans, not better. He’s lining the pockets of himself and the billionaire class,” Ocasio-Cortez added.
Despite Ocasio-Cortez’s claim, the importer, in this case the Colombian coffee company, would pay the price of the tariff to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Breitbart News economics editor John Carney has frequently fact-checked the core of Ocasio-Cortez’s claim, that the cost of a tariff is inevitably paid by the consumer and not the businesses that import foreign goods:
While critics of tariffs frequently claim that importers will pass the cost of tariffs on to consumers, there is little evidence to support that view. When Trump imposed tariffs on goods from China and on imported steel and aluminum, the prices of consumer goods did not rise.
Typically, when a large economy imposes tariffs, the exporters reduce their prices to stay competitive and defend their market share. As a result, much of the cost of the tariff is borne by the exporters rather than consumers. To the extent that tariffs are not paid for by exporters, they tend to be absorbed by the importing merchants rather than consumers.
Tariffs are certainly not a national sales tax because they only apply to imported goods, which make up a small portion of the goods and services purchased by U.S. consumers.
The New York Post also noted that many countries other than Colombia, such as Vietnam and Brazil, also export coffee.
California State Assembly Rep. Bill Essayli wrote, “Who wants to tell her that there are other countries that export coffee, not just Columbia [sic].”
Who wants to tell her that there are other countries that export coffee, not just Columbia. https://t.co/Bp2SK3TnYZ
— Bill Essayli (@billessayli) January 26, 2025
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
