SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A lot can go into cup of coffee aside from cream and sugar.
“Pretty much everything we buy and sell comes from far away, short of a limited amount of Kona coffee or things like that, but, you know, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Indonesia, all those countries were in, you know, tariff reality,” Torrey Lee, owner of Cafe Moto, said.
Lee told ABC 10News the Supreme Court ruling from a couple of weeks ago, striking down most of President Donald Trump’s tariffs, would help his business.
“The upcoming contracts look better because of the tariff relief. That's nice, but that's still when that coffee arrives in May, June, July. You know, if there's no tariffs still by, then it'll be a softer landing than it was last year," he said.
And it’s going to be a while before companies see any refunds. While many companies are suing, a federal judge just gave an extension to the federal government on when they need to return the money.
“So we're looking at maybe late April, early May, then before any refunds are issued,” Alan Gin, an economics professor from the University of San Diego’s Knauss School of Business, said. “It’s going to go to the people who paid the tariffs, which are the importers. The thing is a lot of them pass some of that on to businesses which in turn then pass them on to consumers. So, unfortunately, consumers have to pay a higher price, and they may not get any refund at all as a result of this.”
It has been reported that Costco said it would lower prices if it received a refund. ABC 10News asked Gin if that’s something we should expect from other corporations.
“They're not obligated to pass that on to consumers, so it's basically up to them," according to Gin.
Lee told ABC 10News he’s been in contact with some of the importers he does business with.
“I have a fairly high level of confidence that should they get a refund back, you know, that we will get that passed back onto us just because of the lengthy relationship we have, you know, 15, 20, 25, 30 years,” Lee said.
But he’s not counting his eggs before they hatch, rather, his beans before they roast.
“So, getting money from last year sounds good, you know. But again, I'm not going to base any budgeting on it because I'll just wait and see,” Lee said.
