Brazil’s Lula vows pushback if Trump pursues 50% tariffs
RIO DE JANEIRO—Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva vowed on Thursday to impose retaliatory tariffs on the United States if President Donald Trump follows through on a pledge to boost import taxes by 50 percent over the South American country’s criminal trial against his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Lula issued the threat as Trump said that he would raise taxes on imported goods from Canada to 35 percent, deepening a rift between two North American countries that have suffered a debilitating blow to their decades-old alliance.
The Brazilian president said that he would trigger Brazil’s reciprocity law approved by Congress earlier this year if negotiations with the US failed.
“If there’s no negotiation, the reciprocity law will be put to work. If he charges 50 (percent tariffs) from us, we will charge 50 from them,” Lula told TV Record in excerpts of an interview that will be fully aired later in the day. “Respect is good. I like to offer mine and I like to receive it.”
Lula’s comments raise the risk of a tariffs war erupting between the two countries, similar to what has happened between the United States and China. Trump has vowed to respond forcefully if countries seek to punish the United States by adding tariffs of their own.
‘Witch hunt’
The tariffs letter that Trump sent to Brazil—and posted on social media on Wednesday—railing against the “witch hunt” trial against Bolsonaro opened up a new front in his trade wars, with the US leader directly using import taxes to interfere with another nation’s domestic politics.
Trump has already tried to use tariffs to ostensibly combat fentanyl trafficking and as a negotiating tool to change how other nations tax digital services and regulate their economies.
In Brazil’s case, Trump is trying to dictate the outcome of the criminal trial of Bolsonaro, an ally who like Trump has been charged with attempting to overturn a presidential election. Bolsonaro maintains that he is being politically persecuted by Brazil’s Supreme Court over his charges on the alleged plot to remain in power after his 2022 election loss to Lula.
Lula ordered his diplomats on Thursday to return Trump’s letter if it physically arrives at the presidential palace in Brasilia.
The document attacks the country’s judiciary and mentions recent rulings on social media companies among the reasons why goods from the South American nation will have higher tariffs from Aug. 1.
The United States runs a trade surplus with Brazil.
Aggressive raise
On the northern front, Trump wrote a letter to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney telling of an aggressive increase to the 25-percent tariff first announced in February, allegedly in an effort to get Canada to crackdown on fentanyl smuggling despite the relatively modest trafficking in the drug.
The higher rates would go into effect Aug. 1.
“I must mention that the flow of Fentanyl is hardly the only challenge we have with Canada, which has many Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers,” Trump wrote.
While multiple countries have received tariff letters this week, Canada—America’s second-largest trading partner after Mexico—has become something of a foil to Trump. It has imposed retaliatory tariffs on US goods and pushed back on the president’s taunts of making Canada the 51st state.
Carney was elected prime minister in April on the argument that Canadians should keep their “elbows up.” He has responded by distancing Canada from its intertwined relationship with the United States, seeking to strengthen its links with the European Union and the United Kingdom.
Hours before Trump’s letter, Carney posted on X a picture of himself with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, saying, “In the face of global trade challenges, the world is turning to reliable economic partners like Canada.”
