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Stephen Bartholomeusz Senior business columnist November 17, 2025 — 11.57am

Bananas, coffee, beef, tomatoes, fruit juices, nuts and spices are, apparently, no longer as big a threat to national security as they were in April, when Donald Trump first announced his plan to impose “reciprocal” tariffs on just about every country on Earth.

On April 2, Trump issued an executive order in which he said that persistent US trade deficits constituted an “unusual and extraordinary” threat to the national security and economy of the US and declared a national emergency to deal with that “threat.” That was the justification for the tariffs, even though the US had had a trade deficit in every year since 1975.

On Friday, Trump issued a new executive

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