On Friday, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order that includes, among other items, an exemption to the reciprocal tariffs on “bread…used for religious purposes” (e.g., Matzah) and on the Arba Minim – the plant species used by Jews during the holiday of Sukkos.
As the overwhelming majority of these products come from Israel and other foreign countries, tariffs would have threatened access and increased costs of religious observance. This accommodation builds upon the precedent of other exemptions to the Harmonized Tariff Schedule for certain religious items and is consistent with the Trump administration’s focus on protecting religious freedom.
“Thank you to the Trump administration for once again accommodating religious practices by exempting the Arba Minim and Matzah from reciprocal tariffs and making it easier for Jewish families to celebrate their holidays,” said Rabbi A.D. Motzen, Agudath Israel’s national director of government affairs. “We appreciate that the White House took the matter seriously when we and others brought up these issues and worked with the relevant agencies to find a solution.”
Im confused, the esrogim moichers said the inflated prices were due to tarrifs
The exemptions were only put into place this friday.
This only helps the sellers. The sellers up the price to the limit, even with tarrifs they cannot up the price anymore because they already pushed the max…
I dont know where you shop. My esrog mother has been charging me the same price for over 10 years. He is 100 percent Ehrlich.
I was told by so many in our community that tariffs are good, actually, why are commending Trump for exempting them?
So Trump puts a stupid Tariff in place, people are happy, he takes it away, people are happy, so what was the point?
I buy arba minim and shmurah matza once a year. I’m much more concerned about the effect of tariffs on the items I purchase regularly, like coffee, olive oil, chocolate, and similar items. Not all of these are imported, but often when prices rise due to tariffs even domestic products increase in price.
I’m not planning to buy a car or any large appliances soon, but the costs of those items are likely to rise also due to tariffs.