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Coca-Cola prices are about to climb, heres why
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The company said Wednesday it will raise its soda prices due to President Donald Trumps recent tariffs on steel and aluminum. - photo by Herb Scribner

Coca-Cola’s prices are about to surge.

The company said Wednesday it will raise its soda prices due to President Donald Trump’s recent tariffs on steel and aluminum.

Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey announced the decision during a call with investors and then again in a phone call with the media.

He cited rising costs from transportation and metal from Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods as the reason behind the price hike.

"We had to take with our bottling partners an increase (in prices) in our sparkling beverage industry in the middle of the year, which is relatively uncommon," Quincey said on CNBC's Squawk on the Street after the phone call. "That's the metal steel and aluminum going up. The labor going up."

The Trump administration recently slapped steel and aluminum tariffs on countries like Canada, Mexico and the European Union, which means there will be higher prices on items like cans of soda, according to CNBC.

"The tariffs on the metals, it's one of many factors (that) cost us to go out in the middle of the year and announce price increase," he said.

But Quincey admitted in his investors call that his company might have one advantage compared to others since products are built locally.

"We're very focused on creating local businesses, with local factories, with local jobs, with local blue collar," he said, according to CNBC. "Less trade and more tariffs will mean less economic growth in the end and that will affect us."

Coca-Cola becomes the first member of the global beverage industry to announce price hikes. Beer companies, which also rely on aluminum, are also considering raising prices, according to BuzzFeed News.

President Trump might take notice of these price increases since he’s long been a fan of Diet Coke, according to multiple reports. In fact, he reportedly drinks 12 cans of Diet Coke per day.

In fact, just this week, CNN obtained a secret recording from attorney Michael Cohen in which Cohen and Trump discuss how they would buy the rights to a model’s story about an alleged affair with Trump. In that clip, Trump asks someone for a can of Coke.

Trump announced earlier this week a new $12 billion plan to help farmers who have been hit hard by the tariffs, according to Reuters. It’s unclear if he plans to do the same for beverage makers.

However, Trump said Wednesday that he and the EU are working toward a “zero tariffs” policy in the future, The Guardian reported,