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U.S. President Donald Trump solutions questions throughout a multilateral lunch with African leaders within the State Eating Room of the White Home July 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Win McNamee | Getty Photographs
President Donald Trump mentioned Wednesday the U.S. will impose a 50% tariff on imports from Brazil beginning Aug. 1, partly in retaliation for the continued prosecution of the nation’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump mentioned in a letter that the brand new tariff — a large leap from the ten% price the U.S. imposed on imports from Brazil in early April — can also be a response to the “very unfair commerce relationship” between the 2 international locations.
The letter to Brazil’s present president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, adopted almost two dozen others that Trump has not too long ago despatched to different world leaders, dictating steep new tariff charges on the products they promote to the U.S.
However the letter to Lula goes additional than the remaining, by imposing a brand new U.S. import tax price explicitly as a punishment for a rustic participating in inner political and authorized affairs that Trump dislikes.
The worth of Brazil’s foreign money, the actual, fell greater than 2% in opposition to the U.S. greenback following Trump’s announcement.
Trump has beforehand sounded off on Brazil over its remedy of Bolsonaro, a vocal ally of the U.S. president who’s standing trial over his function in an alleged coup to overturn his 2022 reelection loss.
Trump known as the state of affairs “a world shame” within the letter, which he shared publicly in a Reality Social publish. He slammed the Bolsonaro trial as a “Witch Hunt,” echoing the language he used to explain the a number of felony investigations that he confronted earlier than successful the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro talks to the media, after the Supreme Court docket voted that he ought to stand trial for allegedly trying a coup after his 2022 electoral defeat, in Brasilia, Brazil, March 26, 2025.
Adriano Machado | Reuters
He additionally railed in opposition to “Brazil’s insidious assaults on Free Elections, and the basic Free Speech Rights of Individuals,” apparently referring to the Brazilian Supreme Court docket‘s latest ruling that might maintain social media platforms liable for his or her customers’ content material.
Trump additionally claimed that Brazil’s commerce insurance policies have prompted “unsustainable Commerce Deficits in opposition to the USA,” which threaten the U.S. economic system and nationwide safety.
However the U.S. has a items commerce surplus with Brazil, which totaled $7.4 billion in 2024, in keeping with the Workplace of the U.S. Commerce Consultant.
The U.S. can also be launching an investigation into potential unfair commerce practices by Brazil, Trump wrote within the letter.
He mentioned that probe relies on “Brazil’s continued assaults on the Digital Commerce actions of American Firms.”
“Please perceive that the 50% quantity is way lower than what is required to have the Stage Taking part in Area we will need to have together with your Nation,” Trump wrote. “And it’s essential to have this to rectify the grave injustices of the present regime.”
Parts of the letter to Lula match the verbiage of the 21 tariff letters that Trump has despatched to different world leaders since Monday.
All of these letters specify that the brand new blanket tariff charges are separate from different “sectoral” duties on imports of particular merchandise, akin to metal, aluminum and automobiles.
All of them additionally ship a preemptive warning that if the international locations determine to boost their very own import taxes on American items “for any purpose,” then the U.S. will improve its tariff price by an equal quantity.
And so they all word that the U.S. “will, maybe, contemplate an adjustment” if the international locations do away with their tariff and non-tariff commerce obstacles.
“These Tariffs could also be modified, upward or downward, relying on our relationship together with your Nation,” Trump says in all the letters. “You’ll by no means be disenchanted with America of America.”
The recipients are a mix of main U.S. commerce companions, together with Japan and South Korea, and smaller economies, akin to Moldova and Brunei.
The tariff charges for these 21 international locations vary from 20% to 40%. They’re all set to kick in on Aug. 1, and Trump has insisted that “no extensions can be granted.”
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