Brazil vows to fight Trump tariff ‘injustice’

Brazilian Economy Minister Fernando Haddad attends a press conference to review the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Friday, July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazil vowed Thursday to combat U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on its exports, saying it intends to lodge appeals if last-ditch negotiations fail.

Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said the tariffs announced Wednesday were “more favorable” than expected, with several key export products exempted.

Still, there “is a lot of injustice in the measures announced yesterday. Corrections need to be made.”

Citing a “witch hunt” against his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro - Brazil’s former president on trial for allegedly plotting a coup - Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order adding a 40 per cent tariff on Brazilian products, bringing total trade duties to 50 per cent.

The levies included coffee and meat, two products of which Brazil is the world’s top exporter.

The order, which takes effect on August 6, listed exemptions for other key exports such as planes, orange juice and pulp, Brazil nuts, and some iron, steel and aluminum products.

Haddad told reporters in Brasilia he would speak with his American counterpart, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, and “there will be a cycle of negotiations.”

He did not give a date.

“We are starting from a point that is more favorable than one could have imagined, but still far from the finish line,” the minister said.

Unlike other tariffs Trump is slapping on economies around the world, the measures against Brazil have been framed in openly political terms, sweeping aside centuries-old trade ties and a surplus that Brasilia put at US$284 million last year.

If negotiations fail, Haddad said Brasilia would “file appeals with the appropriate authorities, both in the United States and with international bodies.”

Trump’s order was based on the Brazilian government’s “politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of (Bolsonaro) and thousands of his supporters,” the White House said in a fact sheet Wednesday.

It also cited Brazil’s “unusual and extraordinary policies and actions harming U.S. companies, the free speech rights of U.S. persons, U.S. foreign policy, and the U.S. economy,” singling out Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.

Moraes is the judge presiding over Bolsonaro’s coup trial who has clashed repeatedly with the far-right in Brazil, as well as with tech titan Elon Musk, over the spread of online misinformation.

The U.S. Treasury announced financial sanctions on Moraes Wednesday, saying he had “taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against U.S. and Brazilian citizens and companies.”

Haddad said the Brazilian government would put in place a program of protection measures for the most affected companies, and noted that “nothing that was decided yesterday cannot be reviewed.”