Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday condemned new US tariffs on Brazilian imports as unfair and a strategic error, warning that the levies would disrupt integrated supply chains and push Brazilian firms toward alternative partners.
Writing in the Washington Post, Lula rebutted the rationale for the tariffs, which the Office of the United States Trade Representative imposed on July 15 at rates ranging from 12.5% to 37.5%. He argued that Washington has run a trade surplus with Brazil exceeding $144 billion over four decades and asserted that Brazil has mechanisms to ensure reciprocity. Lula also accused the Trump administration of weaponizing trade policy to interfere in Brazil's elections this year, citing Secretary of State Marco Rubio's recent exclusion of Brazil from a list of US-friendly Latin American nations.
Brazilian exports to the US have fallen to their lowest level since 1997, Lula noted, adding that Global Trade Alert data now ranks Brazil and Turkey as the second-most targeted nations by US tariffs after China.