The president of the United States, Donald Trump, intensified his conflict with Brazil by announcing his intention to impose a 50% rate on the articles made in the South American nation.
He announced the plan in his last rate of rate, which was shared on social networks.
Trump accused Brazil of “attacks” to US technology companies and a “witch hunt” against the former extreme right leader, Jair Bolsonaro, who is being processed by allegedly participating in a scheme to manipulate the 2022 elections.
Also on Wednesday, Trump said a 50% tariff on copper imports, which he announced earlier this week, will enter into force on August 1.
He said in a publication on social networks that the decision was made due to national security concerns.
Unlike many other countries, the United States enjoyed a commercial surplus with Brazil last year, selling more products in the country it bought.
In the letter, Trump called the 50% tariff on Brazil “necessary … to rectify the serious injustices of the current regime.”
He said he would order the United States Commercial Representative to launch a so -called 301 investigation into the Digital Commercial Practices of Brazil.
Such movement would mark a turn to a more established legal process that the United States has used to impose tariffs in the past, hardening the threat. In his first term, Trump took a similar step on the consideration of Brazil of a tax aimed at technology companies.
Trump, in the letter, accused the Brazilian government of “insidious attacks against free elections and the fundamental rights of freedom of expression of Americans”, including the censorship of “United States social networks platforms.”
The Trump Social Networks Company, Trump Media, is among American technology companies that fight against Brazilian judicial decisions on orders that suspend social media accounts.
Responding in a social media post, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, said that an increase in tariffs in Brazil would be reciprocal, and warned of any interference in the judicial system of the nation.
Trump also entered with Lula about Bolsonaro's trial earlier this week.
At that time, Lula said that Brazil would not accept “interference” of anyone and added: “No one is above the law.”
Trump has published 22 letters to countries around the world this week, including commercial partners such as Japan, South Korea and Sri Lanka, which describes new tariffs on their assets, which he will enter into force on August 1.
These movements have greatly served to relive the plans he had presented in April, but that was suspended after the financial markets backed down the measures.
The country had also temporarily prohibited Elon Musk's X, previously known as Twitter, after the platform refused to prohibit the accounts that Brazil considered that erroneous information was disseminating about the Brazilian presidential elections of 2022.
Last month, the Supreme Court of Brazil ruled that social media companies can be responsible for the content published on their platforms.
In his letter, Trump also spoke favorably of former Brazilian president Bolsonaro, saying that “he respected him greatly.” He added that the current trial against him is “an international misfortune.”
Trump and Bolsonaro enjoyed a friendly relationship when their presidencies overlap, and the couple met in 2019 at the White House during Trump's first mandate. Bolsonaro is often called “Trump of the tropics”.
Bolsonaro, who ruled Brazil between 2019 and 2022, is a trial for allegedly trying a coup d'etat with thousands of their supporters that assault government buildings in the capital in January 2023 after Lula was victorious in the elections.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at that time and has denied the links with the uproarists or any participation in the plot.
“This is nothing more, or less, than an attack against a political opponent, something I know much!” Trump had said. In response, Bolsonaro thanked the president of the United States for his support.
Trump also criticized the BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the developing nations group met Sunday. Trump called the group, which includes Brazil, “anti -American” and said that those countries would be charged with an additional 10%rate.
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