President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva’s government petitioned the World Trade Organization for consultation to alleviate the sudden tariffs imposed on Brazil by the United States.
Sources within the Brazilian government confirmed the petition on Wednesday with news outlets such as AFP and the Associated Press, on condition of anonymity.
The aim is to seek relief from the 50% tariffs that US President Donald Trump slapped Brazilian exports in response to the prosecutors of former right-right president Jae Bolsonaro.
That tariff – the highest Trump imposed on any country in August – came into effect Wednesday. Meanwhile, India is expected to face 50% tariffs later this month unless trades are launched in advance.
The demand for consultation is usually the first step in the World Trade Organization’s trade dispute process. Although the organization acts as an international arbitrator of economic disputes, the steps to negotiate the settlement are long and inconclusive.
Brazilian Vice President Gerald Alcumin estimates that 35.9% of the country’s exports to the United States will be subject to strict taxes. This represents around 4% of Brazil’s total exports worldwide.
Revenge against Bolsonaro Prosecutors
Trump announced the current tariff rates in a letter to Lula on July 9th, which he published online.
Unlike other tariff-related letters of the time, Trump used communications to launch a barbed wire attack on the Brazilian government due to his decision to indict ally Bolsonaro over a suspected coup attempt.
“The way Brazil dealt with former President Bolsonaro, a highly respected leader, including the United States, around the world, is an international dishonor,” Trump wrote.
Just as Trump did after the 2020 electoral defeat, Bolsonaro publicly raised doubts about the outcome of the 2022 presidential election, when he lost to Lula.
But behind the scenes, police and prosecutors allege that Bolsonaro conspired with his peers to overturn the election outcome.
One possible scenario was to call the army and declare a “siege” as president during the final day of Bolsonaro. Then, the prosecutor said a new election would have been called.
Another idea that was said to have come to mind among Bolsonaro’s allies was to poison Lula.
But, facing criminal charges in the past that were similarly allegedly attempting to destroy the outcome of the vote, Trump defended Bolsonaro, calling the prosecutors politically biased.
“This trial should not be held,” he wrote in a letter on July 9th. “It’s a witch hunt that should be over soon!”
A few weeks later, on July 30, Trump tracked the tariff threat with an executive order that doubled his charges.
Not only has Trump accused Brazil of “political persecution” of Bolsonaro, but he also added that Brazil is a crime of “human rights abuses” including suppressing freedom of speech through efforts to block disinformation on social media.
“The Brazilian government’s recent policies, practices and actions pose a threat to the US national security, foreign policy and the economy,” Trump wrote.
“Members of the Brazilian government have taken actions that hamper the US economy, violate the free rights of American people, violate human rights, and undermine the interest that the US has in protecting its citizens and businesses.”
Lula raises her voice
However, the executive order included an annex that stated that certain products were not subject to new US tariffs. It included nuts, orange juice, coal, iron, tin and petroleum products.
Lula argues that it is blocking Trump’s attempts to negotiate a trade deal between the two countries. He was recurring sentiment in an interview with news agency Reuters on Wednesday.
“I won’t hesitate to call him the day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk,” Lula told Reuters. “But today my intuition says he doesn’t want to talk about it, and I’m not going to humiliate myself.”
The three-term left-wing president explained that he views Trump’s tariff threat more broadly as part of the long history of US intervention in Brazil and Latin America.
“We had already forgiven the US intervention in the 1964 coup,” Lula said.
“But this is not a small intervention now. It is the US president who believes that the rules of sovereign countries like Brazil can be determined. That’s not acceptable.”
Lula added that it plans to strengthen Brazil’s “national sovereignty” by reforming its mineral extraction policy to boost the local economy.
With US tariffs in place, Lula explained that he would reach out to members of the BRICS Economic Trading Bloc, named after founding members of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But Trump is threatening BRICS-related countries with an additional 10% tariff.
Lula has been taking part in the English media blitz since Trump announced his latest tariff in July, warning consumers around the world will be punished.
For example, later last month, Lula gave her first interview with the New York Times newspaper in nearly 13 years.
When the Times asked him what he was saying, Lula expressed ambivalence about what would happen to tariffs take effect.
“I’m not going to cry from the milk that spilled,” he said. “If the US doesn’t want to buy ours, we’re going to look for people who do that.”
