The Trump administration said it plans to soon hold talks with Brazil that could potentially lead to a reduction in U.S. tariffs on Brazilian goods.
Effective Aug. 6 President Trump imposed an additional 40 percent tariff on imports from Brazil, bringing the total tariff on such imports to 50 percent. An executive order explained that the tariff hike was a response to Brazil’s “politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters” as well as “unprecedented” actions by government officials to “tyrannically and arbitrarily coerce U.S. companies to censor political speech, deplatform users, turn over sensitive U.S. user data, or change their content moderation policies on pain of extraordinary fines, criminal prosecution, asset freezes, or complete exclusion from the Brazilian market.”
The EO said the 40 percent tariff could be lowered if the government of Brazil takes “significant steps” to address these issues and to “align sufficiently with the United States on national security, economic, and foreign policy matters described in this order.”
On Oct. 16 U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Secretary of State Marco Rubio held what they called “very positive talks regarding trade and ongoing bilateral issues” with Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira. They said the three of them had “agreed to collaborate and conduct discussions on multiple fronts in the immediate future and establish a working path forward.” They also agreed to “schedule a meeting between President Trump and President Lula at the earliest possible occasion.” The statement made no explicit mention of any potential changes to the tariffs, but given that President Trump has the final say on that issue, a meeting with his Brazilian counterpart could offer an opportunity to announce such changes.
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