Trump punishes Brazil with tariffs, sanctions over trial of ally Bolsonaro
WASHINGTON : President Donald Trump ordered massive tariffs on Brazil Wednesday and sanctions against the judge overseeing a trial of his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro, who is accused of attempting a coup in Latin America's biggest economy.
The announcement of 50% tariffs saw Trump make good on his threat to wield US economic might to punish Brazil – and its Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, in particular – for what he has termed a 'witch hunt' against former president Bolsonaro.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva hit back at the move, vowing Wednesday to defend his country.
'I will participate in a meeting to defend… the sovereignty of the Brazilian people in the face of measures announced by the president of the United States,' Lula said at a public event in Brasilia.
Unlike other tariffs Trump is slapping on economies around the world, the measures against Brazil have been framed in openly political terms, sweeping aside centuries-old trade ties and a surplus that Brasilia put at US$284 million last year.
The moves dramatically increased the pressure on Moraes, who has emerged as one of the most powerful and polarising people in Brazil – and a consistent thorn in the far-right's side, after clashing repeatedly with Bolsonaro and others over disinformation.
Trump's executive order added a 40% tariff on Brazilian products, bringing total trade duties to 50%, the White House announced.
The order said the new duties would not come into effect for seven days, and listed exemptions on some of Brazil's major exports – including planes, orange juice and pulp, Brazil nuts, and some iron, steel and aluminum products.
The Brazilian government's 'politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of (Bolsonaro) and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil,' the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the tariffs.
It also cited Brazil's 'unusual and extraordinary policies and actions harming US companies, the free speech rights of US persons, US foreign policy, and the US economy,' and singled out Moraes by name.
The new duties were announced shortly after the US Treasury slapped sanctions on Moraes, which followed a similar move by the state department earlier this month.
The sanctions provoked a swift and furious response from Brasilia, where attorney general Jorge Messias slammed them as 'arbitrary,' 'unjustifiable' and 'a serious attack on the sovereignty of our country.'
Bolsonaro is facing up to 40 years in prison for allegedly plotting a coup to stay in power after losing the 2022 election to leftist Lula.
Prosecutors say the plot included a plan to arrest and even assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin, and Moraes.
Brazil has insisted it will proceed in its prosecution of Bolsonaro, and Trump's intervention in the case has so far boosted Lula's popularity, as the Brazilian leader appeals for national unity in the face of US 'interference.'
On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch's Americas director, Juanita Goebertus, declared the US tariffs and sanctions 'a clear violation of judicial independence.'
'Witch hunt'
Both US secretary of state Marco Rubio and treasury secretary Scott Bessent issued statements Wednesday announcing the new sanctions against Moraes.
'Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against US and Brazilian citizens and companies,' Bessent said.
Rubio accused Moraes of 'serious human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention involving flagrant denials of fair trial guarantees and infringing on the freedom of expression.'
Moraes, 56, has played a controversial role in fighting disinformation.
He was an omnipresent figure during the polarizing 2022 election campaign, aggressively using his rulings to fight election disinformation on social media.
Last year, he ordered the shutdown of tech titan Elon Musk's X network in Brazil for 40 days for failing to tackle the spread of disinformation shared mainly by Bolsonaro backers.
Bolsonaro has called Moraes a dictator, while his son Eduardo had lobbied for US sanctions against the 'totalitarian' judge.
On Wednesday, Eduardo Bolsonaro said the US action was 'not about revenge, it's about justice.'
'Abuses of authority now have global consequences,' he wrote on X.
The US Treasury cited the Magnitsky Act for the sanctions. It freezes US-based assets and bars travel to the country for foreign officials accused of human rights abuses or corruption.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Sun
an hour ago
- The Sun
Trump seeks new US census excluding undocumented immigrants
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has directed officials to develop a new census that excludes undocumented immigrants. The move comes as Republican-led states aim to reshape voter maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Trump demanded a 'new and highly accurate' census based on data from the 2024 election. He stated that undocumented individuals 'WILL NOT BE COUNTED IN THE CENSUS' in a social media post. The US Constitution mandates a census every 10 years counting all persons, including undocumented residents. The next official census is scheduled for 2030, though preparations have already begun. Trump did not specify whether he seeks an early survey or changes to the 2030 count. Excluding undocumented migrants in 2020 would have cost California, Florida, and Texas one House seat each. Census data also determines electoral college votes and federal funding allocations worth trillions of dollars. Trump previously tried adding a citizenship question to the census but was blocked by the Supreme Court. The court did not rule on whether undocumented individuals could be excluded from the count. A March study found that a citizenship question could reduce census accuracy. Experts warn it may discourage Latino and Asian American households from participating. The push coincides with Texas Republicans proposing electoral maps that could gain them five House seats. Other Republican governors are considering similar moves to protect their narrow House majority. Democrats have threatened countermeasures in states like New York and California. – AFP
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Niche and needed: German SMEs weather Trump tariffs with specialist tech
FRANKFURT, Aug 7 — While Germany's big companies groan under the US tariff burden, many small and midsize firms, the backbone of Europe's top economy, are confident their highly-specialised goods will just keep selling. The hope is that, in niche areas where American customers have no obvious alternatives, buyers across the Atlantic will just have to accept paying higher prices for their high-tech machines and products. 'The customer in America pays the tariff,' said Thorsten Bauer, co-head of laser maker Xiton Photonics, based in the western city of Kaiserslautern. 'We don't notice a thing.' Bauer's firm of about 20 workers is in this respect typical of the often family-owned enterprises that make up the German 'Mittelstand', Deutsche Bank executive Jan-Philipp Gillmann said. 'German Mittelstand companies are somewhat protected since they are often very specialised, sometimes the only firm that makes a particular part,' said Gillmann, Deutsche Bank's Head of Corporate Bank Europe. 'The cost of the tariff will often be borne by the consumer.' Under a framework deal agreed in late July, EU exports are set to face across-the-board US tariffs of 15 per cent from Thursday — higher than traditional duties but much lower than Trump's threatened 30 per cent. While German corporate titans such as automaker Volkswagen have grabbed headlines by taking tariff hits measured in the billions, many of the smaller firms hope to weather the headwinds. Brian Fuerderer, head and founder of Microqore Medical, a high-end surgical equipment maker with 32 employees, agreed. 'It's not possible to just copy 'Made in Germany,'' he said. 'There's not much comparable to what we in Germany do when it comes to medical technology.' He added that US tariffs would have to rise to 30 or even 40 per cent before American customers got cold feet. 'For Volkswagen, for big business, it's hard,' he said. 'But if you have a real niche, something only certain specialists can do, demand will carry on as before.' 'No legal certainty' The Mittelstand's rugged optimism defies Trump's repeated statements that foreign companies — not American importers or consumers — will pay the tariffs. That does not mean the levies — and the past months of uncertainty around them — have left the small and medium enterprises entirely unscathed. The United States is Germany's largest trading partner and Trump's on-again, off-again tariff blitz has already had an impact. 'When all the tariffs started, I made no US sales for three months,' Bauer said. 'You don't spend money if you don't know how things will look in the next six months.' He hopes the latest agreement fixing duties at 15 per cent, up from a provisional 10 per cent in the lead-up to an August 1 deadline, will at least give American companies the confidence to place orders again. But he is not entirely sure, pointing to Trump's highly changeable tariff policies. 'There's no legal certainty, basically,' Bauer said. 'I am trying to push up sales in Europe with discounts and things like that, to be less dependent on the international market.' 'Regulating ourselves to death' About a quarter of Xiton Photonic's sales are exports to the United States and it would be hard to diversify, Bauer said, since his high-tech customers are more often found in Japan, China or America than in Europe. Wider geopolitical tensions mean there is no easy answer. 'China could equally turn around tomorrow and say: 'We are not importing anything from the EU,'' said Bauer. 'In that case I'd be just another leaf blown about by the wind.' Fuerderer, whose company makes half its sales in the United States, said that relocating production there could make sense for some firms in the sector over the long term, particularly given high energy costs and burdensome bureaucracy at home. 'The US government wants companies to manufacture in the United States and they have tax breaks, grants and subsidies to make it happen,' he said. In Europe, by contrast, Fuerderer said 'we are regulating ourselves to death. People are afraid to put money on the table and try something new.' — AFP
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Malay Mail
Amid spat over trade and oil, US-India ties near breaking point as Modi faces pressure to stand up to Trump
NEW DELHI, Aug 7 — U.S. President Donald Trump's tirade against India over trade and Russian oil purchases threatens to undo two decades of diplomatic progress, analysts and officials say, and could derail other areas of cooperation as domestic political pressures drive both sides to harden their stances. India's opposition parties and the general public have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stand up to what they call bullying by Trump, who on Wednesday signed an executive order subjecting Indian imports to an additional 25% in duties on top of an existing 25 per cent tariff, due to its big purchases of Russian oil. While India has emerged in recent years as a key partner for Washington in its strategic rivalry with China, its large U.S. trade surplus and close relations with Russia — which Trump is seeking to pressure into agreeing to a peace agreement with Ukraine — have made it a prime target in the Republican president's global tariff offensive. Trump's taunt that India could buy oil from arch enemy Pakistan has also not gone down well in New Delhi, said two Indian government sources. India has also rejected repeated claims by Trump that he used trade as a lever to end a recent military conflict between India and Pakistan. In an unusually sharp statement this week, India accused the U.S. of double standards in singling it out for Russian oil imports while continuing to buy Russian uranium hexafluoride, palladium and fertiliser. On Wednesday, it called the tariffs 'unfair, unjustified and unreasonable,' vowing to 'take all actions necessary to protect its national interests.' But New Delhi knows that any further escalation will hurt it in matters beyond trade, said the sources. Unlike China, India does not have leverage like supplies of rare earths to force Trump's hand to improve the terms of any trade deal, they said. In recent years, successive U.S. administrations, including Trump's first, carefully cultivated relations with India with an eye on it as a vital partner in long-term efforts to counter the growing might of China. But analysts say Trump's recent moves have plunged the relationship back to possibly its worst phase since the U.S. imposed sanctions on India for nuclear tests in 1998. 'India is now in a trap: because of Trump's pressure, Modi will reduce India's oil purchases from Russia, but he cannot publicly admit to doing so for fear of looking like he's surrendering to Trump's blackmail,' said Ashley Tellis at Washington's Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 'We could be heading into a needless crisis that unravels a quarter century of hard-won gains with India.' Indian state refiners have in recent days stopped buying Russian oil as discounts narrowed and pressure from Trump rose, Reuters has reported. New challenges for relations A more pressing challenge for India, analysts say, is the stark divergence between its priorities and Trump's political base on key issues such as work visas for tech professionals and offshoring of services. India has long been a major beneficiary of U.S. work visa programmes and the outsourcing of software and business services, a sore point for Americans who have lost jobs to cheaper workers in India. Relations with India risk becoming a 'football in American domestic politics,' warned Evan Feigenbaum, a former senior State Department official under the Republican presidency of George W. Bush. 'Issues that directly touch India are among the most partisan and explosive in Washington, including immigration and deportation, H1B visas for tech workers, offshoring and overseas manufacturing by U.S. companies, and technology sharing and co-innovation with foreigners,' he wrote in a LinkedIn post. Since a 2008 deal to cooperate on civilian nuclear technology, the two countries have deepened intelligence sharing and defence cooperation and expanded interactions with Australia and Japan through the Quad grouping aimed at containing China's dominance in the Indo-Pacific. But fractures have appeared, despite Modi's rapport with Trump in his first term and then former President Joe Biden. Images in February of Indians deported by the U.S. on military planes, their hands and legs shackled, horrified the country just days before Modi went to see Trump seeking to stave off high tariffs. The relationship was also seriously tested in late 2023 when the U.S. said it had foiled a plot with Indian links to kill a Sikh separatist leader on U.S. soil. New Delhi has denied any official connection to the plot. 'The Modi regime's credibility in the U.S. has gone down,' said Sukh Deo Muni, a former Indian diplomat and a professor emeritus at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University. 'And maybe there are people who think that India or Modi had to be brought back on track, if not taught a lesson. And if that trend continues, I'm quite worried that the challenge is quite powerful and strong for India to navigate.' Strengthening ties with U.S. rivals One Indian government source said India needs to gradually repair ties with the U.S. while engaging more with other nations that have faced the brunt of Trump tariffs and aid cuts, including the African Union and the BRICS bloc that includes Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa. India is already making some moves with Russia and China. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to visit New Delhi this year and on Tuesday, Russia said the two countries had discussed further strengthening defence cooperation 'in the form of a particularly privileged strategic partnership.' India has also boosted engagement with China, a change after years of tensions following a deadly border clash in 2020. Modi is set to visit China soon for the first time since 2018. 'Russia will attempt to exploit the rift between the U.S. and India by proposing the restoration of the Russia–India–China trilateral and new projects in defence,' said analyst Aleksei Zakharov at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. 'India will undoubtedly be mindful of structural factors such as sanctions against Russia and will seek to find a compromise with the Trump administration.' — Reuters
