The National Restaurant Association says new tariffs implemented by the Trump Administration on Wednesday will “create change and disruption that restaurant operators will have to navigate to keep their restaurants open.”
President Trump announced a 10% baseline tariff for all of the United States’ largest trading partners, as NBC News has reported, and they’re set to go into effect on April 5. Additional “reciprocal tariffs” will be applied to what the president called the “worst offenders” starting on April 9.
Those latter tariffs will be levied at approximately half the rate of duties charged on American exports by other countries.
Countries in the European Union, for example, will face a 20% tariff.
After Trump’s announcement, the National Restaurant Association’s CEO, Michelle Korsmo, released a statement.
“The biggest concerns for restaurant operators—from community restaurants to national brands—are that tariffs will hike food and packaging costs and add uncertainty to managing availability, while pushing prices up for consumers,” the statement reads.
“Restaurant operators know consumers are very sensitive to costs and have kept menu price increases to 30%, while their food costs have gone up 40% in the last five years. Restaurant operators rely on a stable supply of fresh ingredients year-round to provide the menu items their customers want and expect. Many restaurant operators source as many domestic ingredients as they can, but it’s simply not possible for U.S. farmers and ranchers to produce the volumes needed to support consumer demand.”
Korsmo said her organization will lobby the Trump administration to carve out some relief for the U.S. restaurant industry. The National Restaurant Association will “continue to share with the White House the real-life challenges these changes present for restaurant operators and ask to have food and beverages exempted from these tariffs.”
Shortly before Trump’s official announcement of the new policy, Emanuele Orsini, head of Italy’s business network, Confindustria, said the tariffs will have a massive effect on Italian companies, according to Reuters. He said Italy’s food industry will be among the hardest-hit sectors, along with the pharmaceutical and production machinery industries.
