by US President Donald Trump said he was planning to impose a tax of 50% on goods made in Brazil and escalated his fight with the South American country.
He announced the plan in his last tariff letter, which was shared on social media.
In it, Trump accuses Brazil of “attacks” on American technology companies and of carrying out a “witch hunt” against former extreme right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who is being prosecuted about his alleged role in a conspiracy to destroy the 2022 elections.
With the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Trump sparkled about the Bolsonaro process earlier this week.
At the time, President Lula said that Brazil would not accept “interference” from someone and added: “No one is above the law.”
He also said that Trump was “irresponsible” for threatening rates on social media.
This week Trump has posted 22 letters to countries around the world, including trading partners such as Japan, Zuid -Korea and Sri Lanka, with new rates on their goods that he says they will come into force on 1 August.
The steps have largely served to breathe new life into plans that he had proposed in April, but which were put on hold after the financial markets were withdrawn in the measures.
But the message to Brazil was a much more focused mission and endangered a significant increase in relation to the rate of 10% that the White House had previously announced on goods from the country.
Unlike many other countries, the US enjoyed a trade surplus with Brazil last year and sold more goods in the country than it has bought it.
In the letter, Trump called the 50% rate “necessary … to remedy the serious injustice of the current regime”.
He said he would order the American trade representative to start a so-called 301 study into the digital commercial practices of Brazil.
Such a step would mark a turn to a more established legal process that the US used in the past to impose rates, which strengthens the threat. In his first term, Trump took a similar step about the consideration of Brazil of a targeting technology companies.
In the letter, Trump accused the Brazilian government of “treacherous attacks on free elections and the fundamental freedom of expression of Americans”, including the censorship of “American social media platforms”.
Trump’s social media company, Trump Media, is one of the American technology companies fighting against Brazilian court ruling on orders that suspend social media accounts.
The country also had the X of Elon Musk, formerly known as Twitter, temporarily prohibited after the platform refused to prohibit accounts that were considered by Brazil to spread incorrect information about the Brazilian presidential election in 2022.
Last month, the Brazil Supreme Court ruled that social media companies can be held responsible for content placed on their platforms.
In his letter, Trump also spoke well about the former Brazilian President Bolsonaro and said he “respected him enormously”. He added that the ongoing process against him is “an international shame”.
Trump and Bolsonaro enjoyed a friendly relationship when their presidencies overlap, with the pair meeting in 2019 in the White House during the first term of Trump. Bolsonaro is often called “Trump of the Tropics”.
Both men then lost presidential elections and both refused to publicly recognize the defeat.
Bolsonaro, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is on trial for alleged attempt at a coup with thousands of his supporters who stormed government buildings in the capital in January 2023 after Lula had overcome in the elections.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and refused all ties with the riots or any involvement in the plot.
Earlier this week, Trump had compared the persecution of Bolsonaro with the legal affairs that he confronted in the same way.
“This is nothing more, or less, than an attack on a political opponent – something I know a lot about!” Trump had said. In response, Bolsonaro thanked the American president for his support.
Trump was also critical of the Brics top in Rio de Janeiro, where the group met developing countries on Sunday. Trump called the group, including Brazil, “Anti-American” and said those countries would charge an extra rate of 10%.
President Lula shot back on Monday against the threats of the social media of Trump.
“He must know that the world has changed,” Lula said. “We don’t want an emperor.”
