Trump Unveils New Tariff Rates, Including 50% Levy on Brazil
US President Donald Trump unveiled a new round of tariff demand letters on Wednesday, including a 50% rate on Brazil, one of the highest so far announced for the levies which are set to hit in August.
Trump cited the treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro — a right-wing populist leader — in his letter to Brazil, calling on authorities to drop charges against him over an alleged coup attempt. “This Trial should not be taking place. It is a Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!” Trump wrote in the letter.
Trump on Wednesday also said he would levy a 30% rate on Algeria, Libya, Iraq and Sri Lanka, with 25% duties on products from Brunei and Moldova and a 20% rate on goods from the Philippines. The levies were largely in line with rates Trump had initially announced in April against those countries, though Iraq’s duties are down from 39% and Sri Lanka’s reduced from 44%.
Trump began notifying trading partners of new rates on Monday ahead of a deadline this week for countries to wrap up negotiations with his administration — and posted to social media that he planned to release “a minimum of 7” letters on Wednesday morning, with additional rates to be posted in the afternoon.
Brazil is the first country to receive one of Trump’s tariff notifications that was not on the initial list of trading partners when he announced higher so-called reciprocal tariffs in April. And the letter to Brazil also presents a warning shot to the BRICS group of developing nations, which Trump has cast as a threat to the US dollar’s status as the world’s key currency.
Brazil is unusual among Trump’s most recent tariff targets because it runs a deficit in trade with the US, while almost all the others post large surpluses. In 2024, Brazil imported some $44 billion of American products, while US imports from Brazil were around $42 billion, according to the Census Bureau.
Brazil ranks among the top 20 US trading partners. Out of the other seven countries cited in Trump’s announcements Wednesday, only the Philippines — which sent some $14.1 billion of goods to the US last year — makes it into the top 50.
Imports from the remaining six nations put together amounted to less than $15 billion last year, with Iraq — an exporter of crude oil — accounting for about half of that sum.
Asked what formula he was using to determine the appropriate duty rate for trading partners, Trump told reporters at a White House event on Wednesday that it was “based on common sense, based on deficits, based on how we’ve been over the years, and based on raw numbers.”
“They’re based on very, very substantial facts, and also past history,” he said.
Source : Bloomberg
