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 Pictures
President Donald Trump stated Wednesday the U.S. will slap a 50% tariff on Brazil‘s imports, partly in retaliation for the continuing prosecution of the nation’s former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump stated in a letter that the brand new tariff — a large bounce from the ten% fee the U.S. imposed on Brazil in early April — can also be being imposed in 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 lately 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 fee explicitly as a punishment for a rustic participating in inner political and authorized affairs that Trump dislikes.
The worth of Brazil’s forex, the real, fell greater than 2% towards 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 scenario “a global shame” within the letter, which he shared publicly in a Truth Social post.
Trump additionally claimed that Brazil’s commerce insurance policies have brought about “unsustainable Commerce Deficits towards the USA,” which threaten the U.S. financial 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 Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The U.S. can also be launching an investigation into potential unfair commerce practices by Brazil, Trump wrote within the letter.
He stated that probe is predicated on “Brazil’s continued assaults on the Digital Commerce actions of American Corporations.”
That is breaking information. Please refresh for updates.