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NBC News
25 minutes ago
- NBC News
Orange juice importer says Brazil tariffs will raise prices for American consumers
Orange juice prices could rise by 20% to 25%, according to Johanna Foods, a small U.S. business suing the White House over tariffs threatened against Brazil. President Donald Trump said in a July 9 letter to President Luiz Inacio da Silva that he would apply a 50% tariff to all imports from Brazil starting on August 1. Trump said the high tariff rate was necessary because of "the way Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro." Prosecutors in Brazil have alleged that Bolsonaro was part of a scheme that included a plan to assassinate the country's current president, who defeated him in the last election, and Supreme Federal Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes. Bolsonaro has denied all wrongdoing. Trump also said Brazil was censoring U.S.-based social media platforms and was running 'unsustainable Trade Deficits' with the United States. However, the United States has a goods trade surplus with Brazil — more than $7 billion last year, according to data from the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Johanna Foods, which says it supplies nearly 75% of all private label 'not from concentrate' orange juice to customers in the U.S., says those arguments do not constitute an economic emergency and therefore the president does not have the power to levy this tariff. 'The Brazil Letter does not refer to any legal or statutory authority under which the Brazil Tariff can be imposed by the President,' the company's attorney Marc Kaplin writes in a filing. 'The Brazil Letter does not constitute a proper executive action, is not an Executive Order, does not reference or incorporate any Executive Orders or modify or amend any existing Executive Order.' The company says some of its customers include Walmart, Aldi, Wegman's, Safeway and Albertsons. Johanna Foods CEO Robert Facchina says the duty would result in an estimated $68 million hit, exceeding any single year of profits since the company was created in 1995. 'The Brazil Tariff will result in a significant, and perhaps prohibitive, price increase in a staple American breakfast food,' he writes. 'The not from concentrate orange juice ingredients imported from Brazil are not reasonably available from any supplier in the United States in sufficient quantity or quality to meet the Plaintiffs' production needs.' Brazil's Supreme Court ruled last month that social media companies can be held accountable for the content posted on their platforms. Elon Musk's social media site, X, was also briefly banned last year in Brazil after Musk refused to comply with a court request to ban some accounts. Facchina says layoffs of union manufacturing employees, administrative staff and a reduced production capacity at the company's Flemington, New Jersey, and Spokane, Washington, facilities are near certain should these tariffs go into effect. Johanna Foods employs almost 700 people across Washington state and New Jersey. Brazil was the 18th-largest source of U.S. goods imports last year, with more than $42 billion worth of imports entering the country, according to U.S. International Trade Commission data. In its legal filing, the company asks the Court of International Trade to declare that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not grant Trump the statutory authority to impose the tariffs against Brazil, and that the president has not identified a national emergency or 'unusual and extraordinary threat' as required by the IEEPA law to impose the tariffs. In response to the lawsuit, a White House spokesman said the administration is "legally and fairly using tariff powers that have been granted to the executive branch by the Constitution and Congress to level the playing field for American workers and safeguard our national security.'
Sky News
an hour ago
- Sky News
Gaza food situation 'worst it's ever been', charity says – as UK promises £40m in aid
An aid worker in the central Gaza Strip has told Sky News the food situation in the enclave is "absolutely desperate" and "the worst it's ever been". Her comments to Sky's chief presenter Mark Austin come amid fresh international outcry over Israel's restrictions on aid, as the UK has joined together with 24 other countries to say: "The war in Gaza must end now." Rachael Cummings, humanitarian director for Save The Children, is in Deir al Balah, a city in central Gaza where tens of thousands of people have sought refuge during repeated waves of mass displacement. She said: "One of my colleagues said to me yesterday, 'We are all walking together towards death'. And this is the situation now for people in Gaza. "The markets are empty," she said. "People may even have cash in their pockets yet they cannot buy bread [or] vegetables. "My team have said to me, 'There's nothing in my house to feed my children, my children are crying all day, every day." Israel launched a ground assault on Deir al Balah on Monday morning, another charity said earlier. Ms Cummings's comments came as the UK and 24 other nations issued a joint statement calling for a ceasefire. The statement criticised aid distribution in Gaza, which is being managed by a US and Israel-backed organisation, Gaza Health Foundation. "The Israeli government's aid delivery model is dangerous, fuels instability and deprives Gazans of human dignity," it said. The 25 countries also called for the "immediate and unconditional release" of hostages captured by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 attacks. Lammy promises £40m for Gaza aid Foreign Secretary David Lammy later promised £40m for humanitarian assistance in Gaza. He told MPs: "We are leading diplomatic efforts to show that there must be a viable pathway to a Palestinian state involving the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas, in the security and governance of the area. "Hamas can have no role in the governance of Gaza, nor use it as a launchpad for terrorism." 2:53 Addressing the foreign secretaries' joint written statement, charity worker Liz Allcock - who works for Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) in Gaza - told Sky News: "While we welcome this, there have been statements in the past 21 months and nothing has changed. "In fact, things have only got worse. And every time we think it can't get worse, it does." "Without a reversal of the siege, the lack of supplies, the constant bombardment, the forced displacement, the killing, the militarisation of aid, we are going to collapse as a humanitarian response," she said. "And this would do a grave injustice to the 2.2 million people we're trying to serve. "An immediate and permanent ceasefire, and avenues for accountability in line with international law, is the minimum people here deserve." The war in Gaza started in response to Hamas's attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200 people and saw about 250 taken hostage. More than 59,000 Palestinians have since been killed, with more than half being women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. In recent weeks while waiting for food and aid.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Wall Street Journal booted from White House press trip to Scotland after Epstein report
Reporters for The Wall Street Journal have been removed from a pool of journalists covering Donald Trump's upcoming trip to Scotland in the wake of the newspaper's reporting on the president's alleged 50th birthday card to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The reporters' removal, first reported by Politico, also follows the president's $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper and the journalists who wrote the story, as well as right-wing media mogul Rupert Murdoch and parent companies News Corp and Dow Jones. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement shared with The Independent that neither the newspaper nor 'any other news outlet are not guaranteed special access to cover President Trump in the Oval Office, aboard Air Force One, and in his private workspaces.' 'Due to the Wall Street Journal 's fake and defamatory conduct, they will not be one of the thirteen outlets on board,' she said. 'Every news organization in the entire world wishes to cover President Trump, and the White House has taken significant steps to include as many voices as possible.' The Independent has requested comment from the WSJ and White House Correspondents Association. Trump's lawsuit filed in federal court in Miami on July 18 claims the newspaper, its parent companies, executives and journalists falsely smeared the president by accusing him of writing a sexually suggestive birthday card to Epstein in 2003. The birthday greeting is described by the newspaper as including a sexually suggestive drawing and a birthday wish that says 'may every day be another wonderful secret.' A letter reportedly bearing Trump's name, which the WSJ report claims was reviewed by the newspaper, contains several lines of typewritten text framed by a drawing of a naked woman. His signature is a squiggly 'Donald' below her waist, mimicking pubic hair, according to the report. The defendants 'failed to attach the letter, failed to attach the alleged drawing, failed to show proof that President Trump authored or signed any such letter, and failed to explain how this purported letter was obtained,' according to Trump's lawsuit. 'The reason for those failures is because no authentic letter or drawing exists,' the complaint claims. This is a developing story
