New US tariff is more serious and has electoral potential

USA alleges 'unreasonable' practices and proposes 25% tariff on Brazilian goods
The report from the US Trade Office (USTR) suggesting 25% general tariffs on Brazilian products is more serious than the tariff announced last year and should be the target of the electoral speeches of the main presidential campaigns in Brazil.
This time, the new tariffs arrive in the guise of an investigation, which began in 2025, before the strengthening of relations between the North American presidents Donald Trump and Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).
Brazil had time to present its allegations, Brazilian ministries and professional offices hired by companies and sectors acted with arguments and explanations to the American authorities, who seem not to have listened to explanations.
In the case of PIX - instant payment system created by the Central Bank (BC) -, the target of the investigation in which Brazil is accused of unfair practices, Brazil took numbers showing how it increased the banking access of Brazilians and, as a result, in the medium and long term, they are also good for card companies of credit of American flags (read more below).
Lula and Trump meet at the White House
Ricardo stuckert/Presidency of the Republic
Deforestation
Scientific data on the drop in deforestation, with satellite evidence, were also presented.
An old complaint about the time it takes Brazil to register patents was also answered in detail in the response from Brazilian companies, with a drop in this wait.
The tariff for the entry of US ethanol into Brazil, which was publicly mentioned by Trump, is a long-standing obstacle that Brazil wanted to discuss, but did not submit a concrete proposal.
Points in the USTR's decision give clues to the ideological content of the decision: the quotation of legal measures against technology companies, and even the withdrawal from the air of the X. Measures taken by the Federal Supreme Court (STF).
In the coming days, Brazil will have little space to discuss the merits of the new tariff. Exporters will be able to request tariff modulation. They may also, together with the government, appeal to the US courts or even expand their complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO). It may also escalate the conflict and approve reciprocity measures at the Foreign Trade Chamber (Camex).
In practice, the USTR's decision appears to show a setback in relations between Brazil and the United States.
Since delving into the problems brought about by the war with Iran, Trump seems to have disconnected from Latin America and, consequently, from his chemistry with Lula.
Whoever makes the decisions of the USTR and the State Department is an ideologically based group, basically the same ones that met Flávio Bolsonaro last week.
Whether the new tariff has to do with relations between the Trump administration's ideological side and the family of former president Jair Bolsonaro remains to be seen. It's something that will appear soon.
The measure is bad for part of the Brazilian productive sector. What is already certain is that the new decision will invade right and left electoral arguments from now until August.
Transformed into electoral speech, the new tariff has even less chance of being resolved quickly and with less damage to the economy.

Source: G1