PA House Republicans call upon Trump to halt tariffs on cocoa

Whether you agree or disagree on President Donald Trump’s tariffs on foreign countries and his desire to manufacture more products in America, one thing should be obvious.

Cocoa cannot be grown in the United States.

Therefore, importing is crucial to the industry, which totals $4.4 billion annually.

“We are engaging with the U.S. government to seek an exemption,” Michele Buck, Hershey’s CEO, said in prepared remarks tied to its first-quarter earnings.

Buck and Pennsylvania’s Republican congressional delegation want the Trump administration to reconsider its 21 percent tariff on Cote d’Ivoire and ten percent tariff on Ecuador and Ghana — the world’s top cocoa producers.

In a letter signed by nine of the ten GOP House members from the Commonwealth, the members ask Ambassador Jamieson Greer, the U.S. Trade Representative, to also make some exclusions for cocoa beans, cocoa paste, cocoa butter, fat and oil, and cocoa powder.

“As the Administration moves forward with its planned tariffs, we respectfully request that you exclude unfinished cocoa and chocolate inputs, which cannot be grown in the United States and drive significant food manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania.

“Cocoa trees are unique in that they only grow within 20 degrees of the equator, making American industries entirely dependent upon imports because they have no other choice and there is no alternative product that works as a substitute. These imported products fuel a thriving domestic chocolate manufacturing industry that employs tens of thousands of Americans across this country, many of them in Pennsylvania.”

Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-14) was the lone Republican not to sign the letter.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-10) said in a statement that “Everybody loves chocolate. But confectioners of all sizes are under significant threat if we don’t revise the looming tariffs on our chocolate manufacturing industry.”

“With the support of my colleagues, I contacted the Trump administration to request a fair and balanced trade policy — one that won’t inadvertently hamstring thousands of hardworking Americans in the chocolate industry, especially here in Pennsylvania.”

The Hershey Company is located in Perry’s central Pennsylvania district.

The manufacturer of Kisses, Reese’s and Almond Joy, among others, told investors it expects tariffs to cost between $15 million and $20 million during the second quarter as the company works through existing cocoa inventories. 

But, things could be very, very different in the second half of 2025

“If we look at the unmitigated impact for Q3 and Q4, the impact could be up to $100 million per quarter. If you break that down, two-thirds of it are either cocoa or the Canadian retaliatory tariffs. Those are the two areas where we’ve got the most effort focused on influencing government action, using every lever at our disposal to get those tariffs changed,” said Hershey senior vice president and CFO Steve Voskuil.

London cocoa futures fell to an eight-month low on Monday on expectations of a rise in production in South America, but industry sources told Reuters that production in the key West African cocoa producing region could see another ten percent drop.

Steve Ulrich is the managing editor of PoliticsPA, where this article originally appeared.