Basically, Trump said the former president of Brazil is a persecuted politician, who suffers in the hands of a dictatorship of the judiciary, and also therefore, taxed Brazil by 50%
In the media and in American academic means, several hypotheses are speculated for the tariff war of Trump against several countries. Improving the deficit in current transactions, US reindustrialization, economic and geopolitical disputes with China, a global currency agreement, maintaining the dollar as the main international currency, are the causes pointed out by analysts for the presidentist crusade of the president.
Although there are several assumptions about Trump’s intentions, one thing is certain: the US president does not see protectionist rates as an exclusive trade policy instrument, but as a lever to get advantages in other areas, as highlighted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, during a press conference: “Tariffs were designed to level the field of play to which the international trade system begins to reward the ingenuity, ingenuity, ingenuity, Security, rule of law and stability, not salary suppression, monetary manipulation, intellectual property theft, non -tariff barriers, draconian regulation.
In fact, the taxation of 50% for Brazilian products only confirms the lines of Bessent. Trump has surveyed Brazil for questions that go far beyond trade. Although the president has justified the taxation for Brazil’s unjust tariffs against the US, such a statement is not sustained.
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If that were the real reason, then why at Liberation Day on April 2, Brazil was taxed on the minimum floor of only 10%? Even the formula presented to impose the tariff was based on the size of the American deficit against other countries. It turns out that the US is surplus in relation to Brazil.
In addition, according to Ancham, the average effective tariffs practiced from Brazil against the US is 2.7%, while American for us are 2.2%. These numbers show that, in practice, there is a fair relationship regarding trade relations between them. The facts mentioned show that trade relations between US and Brazil are far from unfair, confirming that the 50% rate imposed by Trump is linked to another factor: our approach to China.
Even before being elected, in an interview with Fox New, on November 8, 2024, Trump already externalizes his concern with China. At the time, Trump said “China wants to change the monetary standard, and if it happens is like losing a world war. We’ll be a second -line country.”
The view that China is a threat to the US is shared by the American Deep State, which does not admit that any other military or economically threatening American hegemony, as highlighted in the article “Revising US Grand Strategy Toward China” written in 2015 by Robert Blackwell and Ashley J. Tellis for the Council on Foreign Relations.
Under this context, Trump surveyed Brazil precisely by the approach of the current government with China through the BRICS. In the last summit of the BRICS, which Brazil presided over, Lula criticized the Trump administration and touched a very sensitive point to the US president: the use of another currency without being the dollar for financial economic transactions.
In Lula’s words: “” Obviously we have all the responsibilities to do this very carefully. Our central banks need to discuss this with the central banks from other countries. But it is something that has no return. This is happening gradually, it happens, until it is consolidated. ”
What Lula said had already been anticipated by Trump in the interview with Fox News mentioned earlier. The US president said: “We are losing Brazil, Colombia, South America, Iran; we have lost Russia, and China is winning.” Based on Trump’s own speech, taxing Brazil by 50% is a way to distance the country from China because of the threat of replacement of the dollar via BRICS.
In addition to this issue, there is also support for former President Jair Bolsonaro. Basically, Trump said that the former president of Brazil is a persecuted politician, who suffers in the hands of a judiciary dictatorship, and also therefore taxed Brazil by 50%.
In short, Trump did not tax Brazil for business relations with the US, but mainly for the geopolitical and ideological support of the Lula administration to China, with the risk of no longer using the dollar as currency in financial economic transactions, which frontally hurts US interests. To a lesser extent, the increase is also justified by Trump’s support to Bolsonaro.
With 50%tariffs, Trump’s message of course: stay far ideological and geopolitically from China, and free Bolsonaro from a possible unfair condemnation. It is the monroe doctrine being applied by Donald Trump. Instead of Europe, it is now to prevent Chinese interference in American affairs.
*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the young Pan.
Source: Jovempan
I have been working as a journalist for over 10 years. In that time, I have covered the news from all corners of the world, and written about everything from politics to business.I’m now a full-time author, and my work can be found at Global happenings. My aim is to bring you up-to-date news and views on global affairs, in a format that is easy to read and understand.
