The United States is imposing 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil after a yearlong investigation by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, with the new duties set to take effect July 22. The order comes from the top of the trade apparatus and lands, as usual, on workers, consumers and supply chains that had no seat at the table.
Who Pays for the Trade War
The tariffs were first proposed last month, then locked in under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, the legal machinery Washington uses when it wants to dress up coercion as procedure. The order exempts some goods not produced in the U.S. or items officials worry would disrupt supply chains, including coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice, some oil and gas energy products and aerospace parts and components. Even the carve-outs show the same logic: the state picks winners and losers, then calls it balance.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said Brazil had a range of unfair trade practices, including lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own, among other practices seen as unreasonable and unfair. The U.S., however, has had a goods trade surplus with Brazil for years. That detail sits there like a brick through the window of the official story. Washington says “level playing field,” but the numbers and the power relation don’t exactly match the slogan.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement that the action was necessary to ensure American workers and companies compete on a level playing field. “Extensive negotiations with Brazil over the past year have not resolved these issues, but we remain open to continuing negotiations with Brazil to bring about long-needed changes to the problems identified in this investigation,” he said. The language is polished, but the message is blunt: comply, keep talking, and accept the terms set by the stronger state.
The People at the Bottom
The order’s exemptions make clear who gets protected first. Coffee, beef, oranges, orange juice, some oil and gas energy products and aerospace parts and components are spared because officials say they are not produced in the U.S. or could disrupt supply chains. That’s not mercy. It’s management. The machinery of trade policy is built to shield corporate logistics while ordinary people absorb the costs when the screws tighten.
After U.S. officials in early June warned that they were proposing the tariffs, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reacted with indignation. He pointed to political considerations, blaming his rival in the country’s October elections, Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro had recently visited Washington and is the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of President Donald Trump. The whole affair drags electoral theater into the center of a trade fight, with rival politicians and foreign ties doing the talking while the public gets the bill.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X about the announcement of the tariffs: “Let there be no confusion about why: President Lula and his government have not negotiated with the US in good faith. His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. For the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that.” The statement turns a state decision into a morality play, then hands the punishment to everyone else.
What the Courts and Presidents Allow
The tariffs are being imposed under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the U.S. to launch the investigation into Brazil’s trade practices. In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against many of Trump’s tariffs imposed under a different law, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977, finding he overstepped his authority under that act to impose sweeping tariffs on U.S. trading partners, including Brazil. The legal tools change, the domination stays familiar.
Trump had under that law imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil to protest its prosecution of Jair Bolsonaro for trying to overturn his loss in a 2022 election. But Trump’s relationship with Lula seemed to improve in May, when he visited the White House. The names shift, the institutions remain, and the people below are still expected to live with the consequences of decisions made far above them.