The government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has petitioned the World Trade Organization(WTO) for consultations to help alleviate the steep tariffs imposed on Brazil by the United States. The aim is to seek relief from the 50 percent tariff that US President Donald Trump slapped on Brazilian exports in response to the country’s prosecution of former far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro.
According to sources within the Brazilian government, the petition was confirmed on Wednesday to news outlets like AFP and The Associated Press, on condition of anonymity. Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin has estimated that 35.9 percent of the country’s exports to the US will be subject to the stiff taxes, which equals about 4 percent of Brazil’s total exports worldwide.
Trump unveiled the current tariff rate on July 9, in a letter addressed to Lula and published online. In the letter, Trump launched into a barbed attack on the Brazilian government for its decision to prosecute Bolsonaro, an ally, over an alleged coup attempt. “The way that Brazil has treated former President Bolsonaro, a Highly Respected Leader throughout the World during his Term, including by the United States, is an international disgrace,” Trump wrote.
Lula has claimed that Trump is impeding attempts to negotiate a trade deal between their two countries. “The day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won’t hesitate to call him,” Lula told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday. “But today my intuition says he doesn’t want to talk. And I’m not going to humiliate myself.”
The executive order imposing the tariffs included an annex that indicated certain products would not be subject to the new US tariffs, including nuts, orange juice, coal, iron, tin, and petroleum products. Lula explained that he saw Trump’s tariff threats as part of a long history of US intervention in Brazil and Latin America more broadly.
“We had already pardoned the US intervention in the 1964 coup,” Lula said, referencing the overthrow of a Brazilian president that sparked a two-decade-long military dictatorship. “But this now is not a small intervention. It’s the president of the United States thinking he can dictate rules for a sovereign country like Brazil. It’s unacceptable.”
Lula added that he plans to bolster Brazil’s “national sovereignty” by reforming its mineral extraction policy to boost the local economy. With the US tariffs in play, Lula also explained that he would reach out to members of the BRICS economic trading bloc. Trump, however, has threatened any BRICS-affiliated country with an additional 10-percent tariff.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Lula expressed ambivalence about the tariffs taking effect. “I’m not going to cry over spilled milk,” he said. “If the United States doesn’t want to buy something of ours, we are going to look for someone who will”.