General
New Generation of African Chocolatiers Gets Hobbled by U.S. Tariffs
The new levies come as nations on the continent continue to struggle with the fallout of the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Dana Mroueh, a small-business owner in Ivory Coast, was negotiating to introduce her organic chocolate bars into stores in New York and Washington when President Trump announced new tariffs on all U.S. imports last week.
Ivory Coast is the world’s biggest cocoa producer, and the United States is the world’s largest consumer of chocolate, though most of it comes from Canada and Mexico.
Ms. Mroueh wants more chocolate from Africa to break into the American market. Her company, Mon Choco, is part of a new generation of West African chocolatiers striving to create jobs and wealth at home by transforming raw cocoa beans into processed delicacies. “We were hoping to start exporting within the next few weeks,” she said.
Now, along with the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cocoa beans imported by the United States from Ivory Coast annually, her mango, ginger and coffee flavored chocolates are facing a 21 percent levy that she fears will badly hurt her business. The tariffs are expected to hobble several African economies that had long seen in the United States a welcoming market.
It is not just cocoa. Car parts from South Africa and apparel from Madagascar will also be hit, and Lesotho, the southern African nation that provides denim used in jeans, is poised to bear some of the highest levies, at 50 percent.
“We’re definitely going to face some issues,” Ms. Mroueh said.
