On November 14, 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order exempting various agricultural products from the reciprocal tariff regime established under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (“IEEPA”). Listed in Annex I of the executive order by their tariff codes within the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (“HTSUS”), these agricultural products include coffee and tea, tropical fruits and fruit juices, cocoa and spices, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, and beef. According to a White House Fact Sheet published concurrently with the executive order, these goods were appropriate for exemption because many “are not grown or produced in sufficient quantities in the United States.” These exemptions took effect on November 13, 2025.
President Trump initiated the reciprocal tariff regime on April 2, 2025, through Executive Order (“EO”) 14257 (see Update of April 3, 2025). Although the regime imposed new tariffs, it also included carve-outs in Annex II, which had been modified only once before: On September 5, 2025, the President issued EO 14346, which amended Annex II to EO 14257 by adding and removing several HTSUS codes from the scope of the reciprocal tariff regime, effective September 8, 2025 (see Update of September 12, 2025).
The reciprocal tariff regime imposes a 10% baseline tariff on all imports, along with additional country-specific rates for major U.S. trading partners to address persistent trade-in-goods deficits. The legality of invoking IEEPA to impose the reciprocal tariff regime is currently under review by the U.S. Supreme Court, with a decision expected soon (see Update of November 7, 2025).