Trump threatens Brazil with 50% tariffs ‘over Bolsonaro witch hunt'

Times

13 hours ago

President Trump has threatened to punish Brazil with 50 per cent tariffs, in part because of the ongoing criminal prosecution of his ally, the right-wing former president Jair Bolsonaro.
In a letter published on social media, Trump said Bolsonaro, who is under investigation for attempting a coup to stay in power after he lost the 2022 presidential election, was a 'highly respected leader throughout the world'. He added: '[His] trial should not be taking place. It is a witch hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!'
The tariffs would take effect from next month and apply to all imports from Brazil, Trump said.
He described the government of Brazil as a 'regime', and went on to make a series of claims that the US was being treated unfairly by the South American nation.
The letter also made an apparent reference to Brazil's legal battle with X, the social media platform that was blocked in the country for several months last year. Trump accused Brazil of conducting an attack on 'the fundamental free speech rights of Americans'.
President Lula da Silva of Brazil responded with a statement in which he declared Brazil a sovereign nation 'with independent institutions that will not accept anyone's control'.
'Any unilateral tariff increase will be met under the Brazilian Economic Reciprocity Act,' he said.
The act, approved by the Brazilian congress in April, allows the country to 'adopt countermeasures in the form of restrictions to the importation of goods and services or measures to suspend concessions in the areas of trade, investments, and obligations related to intellectual property rights', among other provisions.
Brazil's main exports to the United States, worth about $50 billion a year, include orange juice, coffee, iron and steel.
Trump characterised the US trade relationship with Brazil as skewed, and involving a trade deficit. But according to US government figures, it is Brazil, not the United States, that is running a deficit. The US sold Brazil $7.4 billion more goods than it bought from Brazil last year.
Tying his escalation of the trade war to the trial of Bolsonaro, a former paratrooper who is sometimes described as 'the Trump of the Tropics', is a tactic which many analysts believe could backfire for Trump, even if part of a deliberately shocking negotiating tactic.
'Historically, heavy-handed foreign interference rarely plays well in Brazil,' wrote Oliver Stuenkel, an international relations professor at Fundacǎo Getulio Vargas in São Paulo. 'Even Lula critics may balk at the idea of a US president trying to interfere with an ongoing legal process involving another sovereign democracy.'
Brian Winter, editor-in-chief of Americas Quarterly magazine, said: 'There is no path to dropping the case as Trump is demanding. Lula's approval has been trending down and he may welcome a fight with nationalist overtones.'
Bolsonaro was indicted last year. He stands accused of attempting a coup to remain in office after Lula defeated him, and has denied the charges. A decision by the panel of judges investigating the case could come as early as September, with Bolsonaro possibly facing imprisonment.
This week, Trump warned that countries in the Brics alliance — the grouping of emerging economies including Brazil, China and Russia which held a leader summit in Rio de Janeiro last weekend — would all be hit by a 10 per cent tariff.
'Any country aligning themselves with the anti-American policies of Brics, will be charged an ADDITIONAL 10 per cent tariff. There will be no exceptions to this policy,' he wrote.
In Lula's speech at the end of the summit, he appeared to respond to Trump without naming him. 'The world has changed,' he said. 'We don't want an emperor.'