Trump's trade war hits a new low with big tariffs on Brazil

Washington Post

10 hours ago

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled in late May that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority with the 'reciprocal tariffs' he imposed on dozens of countries in April. The court's temporary injunction was lifted, however, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which will hear oral arguments in the case on July 31. That has allowed the president to continue imposing tariffs on any country for seemingly any reason.
One of Trump's latest — and most troubling — tariff targets is Brazil. Trump has announced his intention to impose 50 percent tariffs on the world's fourth-largest democracy beginning Aug. 1. That could drive up the cost of coffee and orange juice for U.S. consumers: Brazil is America's largest foreign supplier of both breakfast staples. And he's tariffing Brazil for what purpose? The letter Trump posted on July 9, addressed to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, offered multiple rationales.
Echoing language in similar letters addressed to other countries, Trump wrote: 'These Tariffs are necessary to correct the many years of Brazil's Tariff, and Non-Tariff, Policies and Trade Barriers, causing these unsustainable Trade Deficits against the United States. This Deficit is a major threat to our Economy and, indeed, our National Security!'
There's only one problem: The United States has not had a trade deficit with Brazil in 18 years. The United States, in fact, ran a trade goods surplus of $7.4 billion with Brazil last year. Trump tried to buttress his shaky legal standing by ordering the Commerce Department to launch an investigation of supposedly unfair Brazilian trade practices under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act. But the charade of a fact-finding probe is undercut by the reality that Trump already announced his intention to impose the tariffs. Verdict first, investigation later.
Trump made clear in his letter that his real grievances with Brazil lie elsewhere, outside the trade arena. In the opening paragraph, he wrote: 'The way that Brazil has treated former President [Jair] Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World … is an international disgrace. This Trial should not be taking place.'
In other words, Trump is slapping tariffs on Brazil in large part because he objects to the Brazilian legal system trying Bolsonaro, his right-wing ally, on charges of attempting to overturn by force his loss in the 2022 election. In Brazil's version of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, Bolsonaro's supporters stormed the legislature, Supreme Court and presidential palace in Brasília. Obviously, Trump does not like the idea of holding a leader to account for trying to overthrow an election, and he is willing to use his trade powers to see if he can bludgeon the Brazilian courts into submission.
Because Bolsonaro's son Eduardo is in the United States lobbying the Trump administration to help his father, Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes accused the former president of plotting with foreign powers against Brazil and ordered him on Friday to cut off all contact with foreign governments and to wear an ankle monitor. Secretary of State Marco Rubio retaliated the same day by imposing visa restrictions on Moraes and is said to be considering imposing sanctions on the judge under the Magnitsky Act, a law designed to punish human rights violators.
Moraes had already incurred Trump's ire by aggressively trying to police misinformation on social media. He famously clashed with Trump's erstwhile ally Elon Musk over demands that the X social network remove accounts spreading misinformation. (Musk gave in.) Trump's media and technology company, which operates his Truth Social website, has joined another right-wing site in suing Moraes in a U.S. court. Among the list of grievances in Trump's tariff letter is his claim that the Brazilian Supreme Court is issuing 'hundreds of SECRET and UNLAWFUL Censorship Orders to U.S. Social Media platforms.'
Some civil libertarians are legitimately concerned that the Brazilian courts might be trampling on free speech rights in their efforts to stop the spread of misinformation online. But Trump is hardly a credible champion of free speech, given his attempts to stifle media criticism at home with libel suits of dubious merit. The Brazil trade dispute also features a troubling commingling of private and public interests: It's hard to tell if Trump is defending his country or his company.
So far, Trump's attacks on Brazil are backfiring. Brazil's leftist president, Lula, was losing popular support until the Trump tariffs gave him a sudden burst of popularity. 'A gringo will not give orders to this president,' Lula told a student assembly on Thursday, while wearing a blue cap emblazoned with the words 'Sovereign Brazil Unites Us.'
Trump is hardly the only leader capable of catering to nationalist grievances, and Brazil is in a stronger position than other countries to resist his bullying because its exports to the United States account for only 1.7 percent of its economic output. There is no indication that the Brazilian Supreme Court, which zealously guards its independence, will simply drop the criminal case against Bolsonaro, as Trump demands.
No matter how the U.S.-Brazil trade war turns out — and there are likely to be no winners on either side — it serves to underline the point being made by the plaintiffs who are suing Trump in the 'reciprocal' tariffs case: namely, that he is pushing his tariff-setting authority far beyond what Congress intended or the law allows. By imposing massive tariffs on Brazil for reasons that seemingly have little to do with trade, Trump is trying to undermine the rule of law in both Brazil and the United States.