PRETORIA — The United States has imposed a 25% tariff on most Brazilian imports, escalating a long-running trade and political dispute between President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The move is being closely watched across the Global South, including Africa, where governments are reassessing their trade relationships with an increasingly protectionist Washington.
The tariffs, announced on Wednesday by US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, will come into effect on 22 July. They follow a year-long Section 301 investigation into Brazil’s trade practices, which Washington says place unfair barriers on American farmers, workers and exporters.
The investigation focused on issues including Brazil’s digital trade policies, intellectual property protections and access to its ethanol market.
Several key exports have been exempted from the new tariffs, including coffee, beef, orange juice, oil and gas products, as well as aircraft and aerospace components.
Although framed as a trade matter, the dispute has been deeply shaped by politics.
The Section 301 investigation was launched in July 2025, shortly after Trump publicly urged Lula to halt the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, a close political ally of the US president. Trump described the case against Bolsonaro as a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
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Bolsonaro was later sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for his role in an alleged plot to overturn his defeat in Brazil’s 2022 presidential election.
Trump initially sought to punish Brazil with a far steeper 50% tariff. However, the US Supreme Court blocked that move in February, ruling that he had exceeded his authority under the International Economic Emergency Powers Act.
The administration subsequently turned to Section 301 of US trade law, a mechanism that does not require congressional approval and has historically been used against countries such as China.
Washington and Brasília trade blame
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the tariffs were a response to Brazil’s failure to negotiate in good faith, arguing that Lula’s policies harmed both American and Brazilian economic interests.
Greer defended the measures as necessary to create a level playing field for US businesses, while maintaining that Washington remained open to further negotiations.
Lula dismissed the tariffs as unjustified, pointing out that the United States has accumulated a US$424.5 billion goods and services trade surplus with Brazil over the past 15 years, making Washington’s claims of unfair treatment difficult to reconcile with the trade figures.
The Brazilian president said his government would immediately invoke the country’s newly enacted Reciprocity Law and challenge the tariffs through the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement system. He also stressed that Brazil had never walked away from negotiations.
The dispute has also become entangled in Brazil’s domestic election campaign ahead of the country’s October presidential vote.
Lula has accused a senator aligned with Bolsonaro of encouraging the US administration to impose tariffs during a visit to Washington.
The senator denies the allegation, saying he instead urged US officials to delay any action until after the election.
The episode highlights how trade policy under the Trump administration has increasingly intersected with political alliances and ideological loyalties, extending beyond traditional economic considerations.
The US-Brazil dispute carries important implications for African countries and other Global South economies.
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First, it demonstrates that Section 301, once largely reserved for major strategic competitors, is now being applied more broadly. Trade measures can now emerge from disputes that extend beyond conventional economic issues into domestic political and judicial matters.
Second, Brazil’s experience shows that even countries with trade relationships favourable to the United States are not immune from tariff action. Despite Washington enjoying a significant long-term trade surplus with Brazil, the country still became the target of punitive measures.
Third, Brazil’s response offers a potential roadmap for other developing economies. Rather than yielding immediately, Brasília has chosen to rely on domestic reciprocity legislation and multilateral legal mechanisms through the World Trade Organisation.
For African governments, particularly those that export natural resources or depend on preferential access to the US market through arrangements such as the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), the dispute provides an important case study in managing growing trade tensions with Washington.
The tariffs also come at a sensitive moment for Brazil’s role within BRICS, where it has positioned itself as a leading voice for the Global South in advocating a more balanced international trading system.
South Africa, which shares that platform through BRICS, will be watching developments closely as it navigates its own economic relationship with the United States.
As Washington adopts an increasingly assertive approach to trade, the US-Brazil confrontation is likely to become an early test of whether reciprocal measures and multilateral institutions can effectively counter unilateral American tariffs.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
