The president of the United States, Donald Trump, on Wednesday imposed a 50% tariff on most Brazilian products to combat what he called a “witch hunt” against former president Jair Bolsonaro, but softened the blow by excluding sectors such as aviation, energy and orange juice.
This was relief for many in Brasilia, who, since Trump announced the tariff, had been demanding protections for the main exporters trapped in crossfire. The actions of the Embraer aircraft manufacturer and the Suzano pulp manufacturer rose.
“We do not face the worst possible scenario,” Brazilian Treasury Secretary Rogerio Ceron told the press. “It is a more benign result than it could have been.”
On an informative sheet on Trump’s executive order on Wednesday, the White House linked the tariffs on Bolsonaro’s processing in Brazil, who is being judged for positions to conspire to give a coup d’etat to reverse his electoral defeat of 2022.
The executive order occurred while the United States also announced sanctions against a Judge of the Supreme Court of Brazil that supervises Bolsonaro’s trial, accusing the judge of authorizing arbitrary arrests prior to trial and suppressing freedom of expression.
Even so, Trump’s executive order that formalizes a 50% tariff excluded dozens of key Brazilian exports to the United States, including civil aircraft, arrow, precious metals, wooden pulp, energy and fertilizers.
Among the main concerns of the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were the airplanes produced by Embraer, opens a new tab, which exports 45% of its commercial airplanes and 70% of its executive airplanes to the United States.
The analysts had also warned of a serious potential impact in Suzano., Open a new tab, one of the world’s largest wooden pulp producers.
Embraer’s actions rose 11% in Sao Paulo and Suzano won more than 1% in the afternoon operations.
The former Secretary of Brazilian trade, Welber Barral, warned, however, that it was premature to celebrate. He estimated that the list of Brazilian products exported to the United States comprises approximately 3,000 articles, and only a fraction of these were excluded.
“There will be an impact,” he said on tariffs.
Wednesday’s executive order did not include exemptions for beef or coffee, two key exports to the United States, he said.
The Brazilian meat lobby ABIEC, which represents producers of beef, including JBS and Marfrig, opens a new tab, did not comment on Wednesday’s executive order.
On Tuesday, the group said that new tariffs would make sales to the United States “unfeasible.”
Despite the language that exempts “energy and energy products” of tariffs, energy companies operating in Brazil suspended oil shipments to the United States, citing uncertainty, the IBP Industrial Group told Reuters.
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