September 3, 2026 A tariff investigation in President Donald Trump’s administration has spurred an unlikely critic: one of the largest Orthodox Jewish groups in the US. The Orthodox Union, which calls itself the biggest kosher certification agency in the world, voiced concern in a letter to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick that tariffs on vegetable-based fatty acids would threaten the supply chain for kosher foods. Fatty acids from palm and other vegetable oils are used in a

September 2, 2026 Dear Secretary Lutnick: I write on behalf of the Orthodox Union to share our concerns regarding the antidumping and countervailing duty investigations currently pending on vegetable-based fatty acids imported from Indonesia and Malaysia. These ingredients play an important role in the supply chain serving the American kosher marketplace, and we respectfully ask the Department to take these considerations into account as it evaluates the potential impact of t

July 23, 2026 The Commerce Department has preliminarily set countervailing duties as high as 16 percent on Indonesian and Malaysian imports of certain fatty acids, common inputs for consumer and industrial goods often derived from palm oil, some of which the Trump administration said would be exempt from other tariffs. ... A representative for the “Coalition for Affordable Ingredients,” a group consisting of manufacturers that rely on imported fatty acids and others that oppo

Below is a statement from John Gurley, partner at ArentFox Schiff LLP, on behalf of the Coalition.

July 14, 2026 Antidumping and countervailing duty investigations don’t typically cause a political firestorm, but President Donald Trump’s trade war is pitting segments of American industry against each other in novel ways. ... A new group representing American farmers, manufacturers and downstream producers is pushing back on the proposal from Vantage, which produces chemicals derived from beef tallow and vegetable oils.The Coalition for Affordable Ingredients argues that du

June 30, 2026 Manufacturers that rely on inputs derived from palm oil are pressing the administration to consider the downstream impacts of potential antidumping and countervailing duties on those goods, warning of widespread higher costs for consumers and farmers. The “Coalition for Affordable Ingredients,” launched on Tuesday, includes manufacturers that use fatty acids from palm and other vegetable oils to make the ingredients that go into products like soaps, cleaning sup