SAO PAULO: Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has described new US tariffs as unfair and a strategic mistake, warning in a Sunday opinion column for The Washington Post that they would damage the two countries’ partnership and push up costs for American consumers.
“This month, disregarding dozens of meetings between our teams, solid technical arguments, and documents I personally handed to President Trump, the U.S. government imposed new tariffs on Brazil ranging from 12.5 percent to 37.5 percent,” Lula wrote.
The new duties, he noted, follow the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down last year’s 50 percent tariffs. Food, footwear, textiles, furniture, auto parts, and many other products, he argued, would become more expensive for US consumers as a result. The US Embassy in Brazil did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the column.
Lula also cited Global Trade Alert, an independent organisation based in Switzerland, which he said now ranks Brazil and Turkey as the second most heavily tariffed countries by the United States, behind only China. That comes despite a US trade surplus with Brazil in goods and services totalling $428 billion over 15 consecutive years, he said.
The piece appeared the day after Trump ally and conservative presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro launched his campaign. In it, Lula observed that Brazilian exports to the US have fallen to their lowest level since 1997 and warned of longer-term consequences. “In the medium term, these tariffs will disrupt supply chains that are currently deeply integrated, and Brazilian companies will replace their U.S. suppliers with partners elsewhere,” he said.
Brazil remains open to constructive dialogue with the United States, Lula said, but insisted the country must chart its own course. “Brazil’s destiny is for Brazilians alone to determine, without foreign interference or subservience,” he wrote.
