Trump administration proposes 25% tariffs on Brazil, citing "unreasonable'' trade practices

Audio By Carbonatix

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil, charging that the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in trade practices that are “unreasonable’’ and that “burden or restrict U.S. commerce.’’

The announcement late Monday came after an investigation by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, charging Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own, among other things.

U.S Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said that he and President Donald Trump had had “constructive’’ meetings with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and other Brazilian officials. But he said that “we continue to have substantial differences in resolving the issues identified in this investigation.’’

Greer’s office has scheduled a public hearing July 6 on the proposed tariffs.

Trade lawyer Ryan Majerus, a partner at King & Spalding, noted said that the administration’s plan excludes more than half of U.S. imports from Brazil, including aircraft and key minerals.

The Trump administration invoked Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 to launch the investigation into Brazil’s trade practices.

Last year, Trump had slapped Brazil with a 50% tariff, mainly to protest its prosecution of his ally, former president Jair Bolsonaro, for trying to overturn his electoral defeat in 2022.

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that Trump overstepped his authority by using a different law – the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) of 1977 – to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners, including that one that targeted Brazil.

However, Section 301 tariffs have survived legal challenges, and the administration is likely to use that authority to impose other tariffs and to recoup some of the tax revenue lost when the Supreme Court rejected the IEEPA tariffs.