Brazil calls Trump’s 25% tariff unjustifiable, vows to impose reciprocal tariffs
Published:
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazil has described the latest U.S. tariffs on certain Brazilian imports as unjustifiable and politically motivated and threatened on Thursday to impose reciprocal tariffs against U.S. products. The country’s top diplomat criticized U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the move.
The U.S. said on Wednesday it would impose a new 25 per cent tariff on certain imports from Brazil, citing unfair trade practices by the world’s 10th-biggest economy.
Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira accused Trump administration officials of pressuring the South American nation to give American companies exclusive access to some sectors of its economy. He said Brazil has never left the negotiating table.
The tariffs, first proposed last month, will take effect July 22. The order exempts some goods that are not produced in the U.S. or that officials worry would disrupt supply chains — including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice and aircraft components.
Brazil’s government said the decision hits about 3,000 items, but is yet to decide whether and how it could retaliate with a law its Congress passed in 2025 in response to President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
In a statement late Wednesday, the office of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva refuted the U.S. allegations of unfair trade practices. It said 76 per cent of imports from the U.S. entered Brazil duty-free in 2025, and said the average tariff effectively applied to U.S. products was only 3.1 per cent.
It said it has taken steps to impose reciprocal tariffs, along with other trade-related countermeasures, through its own law and through the World Trade Organization’s dispute settlement mechanism.
Vieira said Rubio made statements that are “unacceptable, offensive to the Brazilian people and the Brazilian government” after the new tariffs were announced. Rubio said in a post on X that the tariffs were the result of Lula putting “his own ego ahead of making a deal” and not negotiating with the U.S. in good faith.
“Rubio launches a crude and arrogant attack on the Head of State of a friendly nation, who has personally sought to open channels for dialogue on several occasions,” Vieira told a press conference in the capital, Brasilia. ”What Secretary Rubio dismisses as ‘ego’ is, in fact, President Lula’s steadfast resolve to defend Brazil’s sovereignty and the interests of our businesses and workers.”
U.S. has a robust trade surplus with Brazil
The United States has for years run a massive trade deficit with the rest of the world, and Trump has cited the lopsided trade numbers to justify his aggressive use of tariffs.
But Brazilian imports make an unusual target: The U.S. has persistently piled up trade surpluses with Brazil. Last year, in fact, U.S. exports to Brazil exceeded imports by nearly $42 billion; only the United States’ trade surpluses with the Netherlands and the United Kingdom were higher.
The new tariff puts pressure on national exports and increases insecurity for companies in both countries, Brazil’s National Confederation of Industry said in a statement Thursday.
The Trump administration first imposed a 50 per cent tariff on Brazilian imports last July. He cited what he called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Trump’s ally was on trial at the time for attempting a coup despite his 2022 electoral defeat to Lula and was later convicted. Some of those tariffs were later rescinded.
Trump at the time also accused Brazil of unfair trade practices and said he had directed U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer to initiate an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.
That led the office to charge Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs, among other things, in June. One of the targets of the investigation is Brazil’s popular PIX payment system, which is run by the country’s central bank and is overwhelmingly free of charge.
Scott Lincicome, a trade analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, said the U.S. administration might have had a legitimate Section 301 case if it narrowly targeted Brazil’s restrictions on trade in digital services. Instead, it threw in a bunch of other allegations.
“It’s a pretty clear case of the administration simply finding an excuse and finding a law that allows them to impose the tariffs they want to impose,’’ Lincicome said.
Welber Barral, a trade lawyer and former Brazilian foreign trade secretary, said the move comes as his country’s exports to the U.S. are now less than 10 per cent of its total for the first time in two centuries.
“Brazil is diversifying to other destinations,” Barral said. “Brazil is negotiating with Canada through the Mercosur. Other deals will also come out as the American market closes.”
Brazil elections may be impacted
Brazilian officials have blamed the Bolsonaro family — the main political opponents of Lula — for the latest round of tariffs. The move was announced shortly after Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a presidential hopeful in October’s elections and son of the former president, visited Trump, Rubio and other U.S. officials in Washington in May.
Sen. Bolsonaro reposted Rubio’s statement, adding: “Lula is no longer fit to be the president of Brazil. We are on a plane without a pilot.” He also described Lula as “the Brazilian Biden” and said he “is grumpy, reckless, and has become a danger to our nation.”
Flávio Bolsonaro is expected to be confirmed as Lula’s main election rival on July 25 at his Liberal Party’s convention in Sao Paulo, though his bid has struggled to overcome the findings of a police investigation which showed he received millions of dollars from a disgraced banker to finance a movie about his father. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The two leading presidential candidates have previously traded barbs over their responses to the deeply unpopular U.S. tariffs, suggesting that they believe how they are perceived as handling them will be a key factor in the vote.
___
Mauricio Savarese and Eléonore Hughes, The Associated Press
Savarese reported from Sao Paulo.
Paul Wiseman contributed to this report from Washington D.C.
