The Brazilian government announced Aug. 6 that it has requested consultations with the U.S. under the World Trade Organization dispute settlement procedures over the additional tariffs totaling 50 percent established by the Trump administration on imports from Brazil pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
The request for consultations targets both the 10 percent “reciprocal” tariff originally established in April as well as the recently announced 40 percent tariff targeting the Brazilian government’s “unusual and extraordinary policies and actions harming U.S. companies, the free speech rights of U.S. persons, U.S. foreign policy, and the U.S. economy.” The Brazilian government said it hopes to resolve this dispute through bilateral consultations, which would ostensibly take place in the “coming weeks”, but that it will request the formal establishment of a WTO dispute settlement panel if a negotiated solution is not achieved.
While a dispute settlement panel would be able to examine the case and eventually render a decision, an appeal by either party would effectively leave the process in limbo, as the WTO Appellate Body is still unable to conduct business due primarily to longstanding U.S. concerns over its operation.
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