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Donald Trump has threatened to hit Brazil with tariffs of 50 per cent and accused it of attacking free speech, in significant escalation of tensions between the US and Latin America’s biggest economy.
In a letter posted to Truth Social on Wednesday, Trump lashed out at the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva over the treatment of Brazil’s former rightwing president Jair Bolsonaro.
Trump said Bolsonaro, who is on trial over an alleged coup plot, was a “Highly Respected Leader throughout the world during his Term”, branding the case a “Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”
He added that the tariff, to be effective from August 1, would be applied “in part” because of Brazil’s “insidious attacks on Free Elections, and the fundamental Free Speech Rights of Americans”.
The US president also accused Brazil’s Supreme Court of issuing “hundreds of SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders” against US social media platforms, threatening them with millions of dollars in fines and “eviction” from the country.
Brazil’s currency dropped 2.3 per cent to R$5.58 against the US dollar in afternoon trading in New York. Futures in the Bovespa share index extended their fall after Trump’s announcement, leaving them down 2.3 per cent by the evening in São Paulo.
Lula signalled his country was ready to respond using a law that enables Brasília to retaliate against trade barriers imposed on its exports.
“Any unilateral tariff increase will be met under the Brazilian Economic Reciprocity Act,” the leftwing leader said.
The letter to Brazil was the eighth Trump posted on Wednesday and comes as part of a broader barrage against 22 countries in recent days as he ratchets up pressure on the US’s trading partners to strike deals or face levies.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump imposed tariffs of between 25 per cent and 30 per cent on Algeria, Brunei, Iraq, Libya, Moldova, the Philippines and Sri Lanka. The letters followed threats of 25 per cent tariffs on Japan and South Korea, among others, on Monday.
While other countries received almost identical letters that referred to the “strength and commitment” of the recipient’s trading relationship with the US, the letter to Latin America’s most populous nation was markedly different in tone.
The 50 per cent tariff threatened is also significantly higher than the 10 per cent levy that was imposed on Brazil as part of the sweeping April 2 “reciprocal” duties.
After Trump earlier said he was going to announce a new import tax on Brazil, but before he unveiled the 50 per cent rate, Brazil’s vice-president and trade minister Geraldo Alckmin described the new tariff as “unfair” and said his country did not pose any problem to the US.
“I see no reason to increase tariffs on Brazil,” he told reporters in Brasília. “The US does have a trade deficit, but it has a surplus with Brazil.”
The US registered a $7.4bn goods trade surplus with the country in 2024, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.
Alckmin said the new US tariff on Brazilian imports would harm the American economy and cited the example of steel.
“We are the third-largest buyer of American steelmaking coal,” Alckmin said. “We make the semi-finished product and sell it to the US, which finishes it. So, by imposing taxes, they increase the cost of their own supply chain.”
Brasília called for an emergency cabinet meeting, according to local media reports.
Trump’s blast against Lula’s administration has brought the two largest democracies in the Americas closer to diplomatic crisis.
The US president’s intervention in favour of Bolsonaro will cheer Brazil’s far-right movement, which claims a judicial crackdown against digital misinformation unfairly targets conservatives.
Prosecutors have charged Bolsonaro with planning an abortive putsch that allegedly aimed to keep him in power after losing a re-election in 2022 to Lula. The hard-right populist denies any wrongdoing.
Lula said the legal proceedings involving Bolsonaro were “the sole jurisdiction of the Brazilian courts” and “not subject to any type of interference”.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio in May said Washington was considering sanctions against one of Brazil’s supreme court justices, Alexandre de Moraes, who has ordered social media accounts deemed to be spreading fake news to be taken down.
The judge clashed with Elon Musk last year over the billionaire’s X platform and briefly banned the website in Brazil.
Trump’s letter to Brazil follows his threat of an extra 10 per cent tariff against members of the Brics bloc, of which the South American nation is a founding member. The Republican on Sunday night accused the group of developing nations of “anti-American policies”.
At the annual Brics summit held in Rio de Janeiro this week, Lula hit back at the warning and urged alternatives to the US dollar in trade — a proposal that Trump has already taken aim at.
Brazil’s foreign ministry summoned the acting US ambassador earlier in the day following an embassy statement voicing support for Bolsonaro.
The country’s Supreme Court declined to comment.
