--- title: "Trump moves to hit Brazil with tariffs of up to 25 percent" description: "The Trump administration has announced a 25 percent tariff on most Brazilian goods, taking effect July 22, escalating a dispute that is as much about politics as trade. Staple exports such as coffee and beef may be spared, but steel and machinery face the full brunt." category: "Business" category_url: https://herald.la/category/business author: "Valeria Ortiz" published: 2026-07-16T04:50:00.000Z updated: 2026-07-16T04:50:00.000Z canonical: https://herald.la/article/trump-moves-to-hit-brazil-with-tariffs-of-up-to-25-percent tags: ["tariffs", "brazil", "trade", "trump administration", "lula"] --- # Trump moves to hit Brazil with tariffs of up to 25 percent The Trump administration has announced a 25 percent tariff on most Brazilian goods, taking effect July 22, escalating a dispute that is as much about politics as trade. Staple exports such as coffee and beef may be spared, but steel and machinery face the full brunt. A trade fight months in the making came to a head this week, as the Trump administration concluded a yearlong investigation and moved to tax imports from Brazil, one of Latin America's largest economies and a major U.S. trading partner. ## What was announced The administration set a [25 percent tariff on most Brazilian goods, to take effect July 22](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/16/us-tariffs-brazil-unfair-trade-practices-section-301-.html), acting under Section 301 of the Trade Act after the office of the U.S. Trade Representative found a range of Brazilian practices, on digital trade, electronic payments, ethanol access, intellectual property and deforestation, to be unreasonable and harmful to U.S. commerce. The measure, [first proposed in June](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/02/trump-proposes-25-tariff-on-brazil.html), would touch roughly 4,100 product lines worth on the order of $15 billion in annual exports, concentrated in goods like steel, pig iron, wooden mouldings and ethyl alcohol. Notably, Washington has [floated exemptions for products it cannot easily source elsewhere](https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-trump-tariff-july-15-deadline-2026/), among them coffee, beef, aircraft parts and rare earth metals, a carve-out that would shield American breakfast tables, and Brazil's aircraft maker Embraer, from the worst of the pain. A separate U.S. labor investigation, due to report on July 24, could add a further duty on top. ## Trade, or politics The administration has framed the tariffs around trade grievances, pointing to deforestation, digital-payment rules and market access for U.S. ethanol. But the dispute has been shadowed by Brazilian politics. Earlier reporting tied Mr. Trump's tariff threats to his objections over the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, a political ally, and the United States has moved against a Brazilian Supreme Court justice involved in that case. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has [accused a domestic political rival of lobbying Washington to bring the tariffs down on his own country](https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-trump-tariff-july-15-deadline-2026/), while Mr. Bolsonaro's son, a candidate in Brazil's October elections, [publicly asked Mr. Trump to delay the measure](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/6/flavio-bolsonaro-asks-trump-to-delay-tariffs-on-brazil-until-after-election). ## Brazil's response Washington cast the decision as Brazil's own doing. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Mr. Lula's government had ["not negotiated in good faith"](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/16/business/us-brazil-tariffs-trade-intl-hnk) and that the tariffs were the price of the Brazilian leader "putting his own ego ahead of making a deal." Brasília has signaled it will not simply absorb the blow. Mr. Lula's government has pointed to a new reciprocity law that would let Brazil retaliate against trade measures it considers unjustified, while keeping specific countermeasures, officials say, in reserve as a bargaining chip. Brazilian negotiators have also stressed that trade between the two countries is relatively balanced, undercutting, in their telling, the case that Brazil is treating the United States unfairly. ## Why it matters here For American consumers and businesses, the immediate question is prices. The floated exemptions suggest coffee and orange juice may be spared, but tariffs on Brazilian steel and machinery would ripple into U.S. manufacturing costs, and any retaliation could hit American exporters. For a global economy already unsettled by a widening tariff campaign, the Brazil case is another test of how far Washington will push, and how hard its trading partners will push back. ## Sources - [Trump administration proposes 25% tariff on Brazilian goods over unfair trade practices](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/06/02/trump-proposes-25-tariff-on-brazil.html) - [Brazil braces for Trump's tariff as July 15 deadline lands](https://www.riotimesonline.com/brazil-trump-tariff-july-15-deadline-2026/) - [U.S. slaps 25% tariff on most Brazilian goods over 'unfair trade practices'](https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/16/us-tariffs-brazil-unfair-trade-practices-section-301-.html) - [US announces new 25% tariffs on Brazil for 'unfair' trade practices](https://edition.cnn.com/2026/07/16/business/us-brazil-tariffs-trade-intl-hnk) - [Flavio Bolsonaro asks Trump to delay tariffs on Brazil until after election](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/7/6/flavio-bolsonaro-asks-trump-to-delay-tariffs-on-brazil-until-after-election)