President Trump’s reckless tariff policies have saddled Rhode Island business owners with major economic uncertainty
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Senators Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) sent a letter to Chair Andrew Ferguson of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) questioning how the agency is working to ensure that new tariff exemptions on coffee, bananas, cocoa, and other tropical products actually lead to lower grocery prices for consumers. The senators warned that without strong FTC enforcement in the concentrated grocery industry, large chains and importers could keep prices high. They urged the FTC to make sure grocery companies do not use the Trump administration’s chaotic tariff policies as cover for price gouging Americans already bearing the burden of the high-cost Trump economy.
“On April 2nd, 2025, President Trump imposed global reciprocal tariffs, including on goods that cannot be produced at scale in the United States such as coffee, bananas, cocoa, and other tropical products. On July 30th, 2025, despite having a trade surplus with the country, President Trump raised tariffs to 50% on goods imported from Brazil, a major producer of these tropical products. Since last year, the price of coffee has increased over 20%, the price of bananas has increased nearly 7%, and the price of candy has increased more than 10% in large part due to cocoa input cost hikes,” wrote the senators.
“It was a necessary but late step to remove these tariffs. However, while eliminating these tariffs reduces costs for grocery importers, we are concerned that consumers may not see the full corresponding price decreases,” the senators added. “We are concerned that the highly concentrated grocery industry – combined with the Trump Administration’s insufficient antitrust and consumer protection enforcement – creates a perfect storm that could enable giant grocery chains to engage in price gouging or other anti-competitive behavior.”
To ensure President Trump’s reckless trade policies are not a “green light” for price gouging, the Senators pushed the FTC to:
- Require large grocery stores and food importers report their costs and retail and wholesale prices and the extent to which tariffs reductions have decreased their costs.
- Investigate and prosecute companies engaging in “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.”
Additionally, the Senators requested answers to the following questions:
- How will you ensure President Trump’s recent tariff removals do not result in sustained elevated prices?
- What steps will the FTC take to enforce competition and consumer protection laws against individuals and corporations in the grocery and food industry that attempt to price gouge consumers?
- If consumers have paid excessive prices for these goods since the tariff removals due to price gouging, what steps will the FTC take to ensure that consumers are made whole?
Senators Whitehouse, Gallego, and Booker previously sent two other letters urging the FTC to investigate how corporations could be using President Trump’s reckless tariff fluctuations as cover to raise prices beyond their cost increases.
A PDF of the letter is available here.
