Storm in a teacup? Trump goes after all the tea from China with latest tariff push as trade war threatens to boil over
- China was the largest exporter of tea – one of the latest products to face 25 per cent tariffs – to the US in 2018, according to trade data
- ‘The tax and duty free import of tea was one of the founding tenets of the American Revolution,’ says president of the Tea Association of the USA
Americans hoping to quench their thirst with a refreshing glass of iced tea may be in for a nasty surprise as temperatures rise this summer, according to US tea importers.
Tea, along with fireworks and footwear, is on the list of goods that will have import duties imposed on them as soon as July if the US carries out its threat of adding 25 per cent tariffs to thousands of products from China.
The proposed tariffs would increase prices for consumers and mark the latest escalation of a trade war between the world’s two biggest economies.
The US is heavily reliant on imports as it produces almost no tea of its own, according to the Tea Association of the USA. America is the world’s third largest importer after Russia and Pakistan, the trade group said.
In 2018, China was the largest exporter of tea to the United States, ahead of Argentina, Japan and India, according to data from the US International Trade Commission.
“Most Chinese tea stays in China,” said Jason Walker, the marketing director for Firsd Tea North America, the US subsidiary of China’s biggest tea exporter, Zhejiang Tea Group. “Growers [and] the manufacturers in China, they’re not going to feel it. They will either keep it in China or sell to some other market, like Europe.”