Affordability is top of mind for millions of Americans today, so it’s good to see the Trump administration adapting its tariff strategy to minimize the impact on household budgets. This refinement is crucial to protecting families’ finances while better utilizing tariffs as tools to punish bad actors like China that engage in all sorts of unfair trade practices.

Recently, the administration imposed a 25 percent tariff on many Brazilian imports via Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, a provision granting the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) authority to investigate and retaliate against discriminatory trade practices. If Brazil wants these tariffs removed, all they have to do is drop their own trade barriers.

But it’s worth noting what was wisely omitted by USTR from these Brazilian tariffs — like coffee.

Americans have no alternative to buying their coffee from abroad because it can’t be grown here except at fantastic expense. As such, tariffs on things like coffee would just get passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices, making their exemption a prudent economic decision.

Then there’s the secondhand goods market, which allows American families and small businesses to import tens of billions of dollars in products annually. The Brazilian tariffs and other recently imposed import duties exempted antiques, collectibles,........

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