LONDON, April 3 (Reuters) - World cocoa and coffee

prices fell on Wednesday as investors fretted that President

Donald Trump's move to slap punishing tariffs on U.S. imports

would damage chocolate and coffee demand in the world's top

consumer of the products.

Sugar prices also fell, caught in the melee of tariffs as

the U.S. is also one of the world's top sugar importers.

Trump said he would impose a 10% baseline tariff on all U.S.

imports, taking the maximum to more than 50% for some countries

and unleashing turbulence across world markets as investors fret

about the end of a decades long era of trade liberalisation.

Top robusta growers Vietnam and Indonesia were targeted with

46% and 32% tariffs, respectively, top arabica and sugar grower

Brazil was targeted with 10% tariffs for its goods, while top

cocoa growers Ivory Coast and Ghana were slapped with 21% and

10%.

The U.S. is also a major importer of processed cocoa

products like butter and powder from the EU and from Asian

countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. Trump slapped 20% tariffs

on EU imports and 24% on Malaysian goods. The 32% tariffs on

Indonesia would of course apply to both robusta coffee and cocoa

products.

"We don't know the (full) impact right now (but) there are

no winners, this is bad for everyone. For the U.S. its

inflationary while others loose access to the U.S., a huge

market," said a Europe-based coffee trader.

At 1258 GMT, arabica coffee futures on the ICE

exchange, seen as a global price benchmark, were down 2.5% at

$3.7935 per lb, having earlier fallen nearly 3%, while robusta

coffee futures were down 1.9% to $5,299 a metric ton.

London cocoa futures were down 1.1% at 6,710 pounds

per ton, having earlier fallen nearly 5%, while New York cocoa

was up 4.5% at $9,373 a ton, having earlier risen nearly

6%.

Dealers said New York cocoa was being boosted by weakness in

the dollar as the harsher-than-expected Trump tariff

announcement sent investors scrambling for bonds and gold.

A weak dollar makes dollar-priced cocoa cheaper for non-U.S.

investors. Sterling for example gained versus the dollar,

making sterling priced London cocoa more expensive for investors

outside Britain and prompting them to sell.

In other soft commodities traded, raw sugar ​​fell

2.6% to 19.08 cents per lb​, while white sugar sank 1.8%

to $542.70 a ton.