By Luciana Magalhaes and Lisandra Paraguassu
SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday slapped a 50% tariff on most Brazilian goods to fight what he has called a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, but softened the blow by excluding sectors such as aircraft, energy and orange juice from heavier levies.
Trump announced the tariffs, some of the steepest levied on any economy in the U.S. trade war, as his administration also unveiled sanctions on the Brazilian supreme court justice who has been overseeing Bolsonaro’s trial on charges of plotting a coup.
“Alexandre de Moraes has taken it upon himself to be judge and jury in an unlawful witch hunt against U.S. and Brazilian citizens and companies,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement.
Moraes, he said, “is responsible for an oppressive campaign of censorship, arbitrary detentions that violate human rights, and politicized prosecutions — including against former President Jair Bolsonaro.”
Trump’s final tariff order and the sanctions followed weeks of sparring with Brazilian leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has likened the U.S. president, a close ideological ally of Bolsonaro’s, to an unwanted “emperor.”
Despite Trump’s effort to use the tariffs to alter the trajectory of a pivotal criminal trial, the range of exemptions came as a relief for many in Brasilia, who since Trump announced the tariff earlier this month had been urging protections for major exporters caught in the crossfire. Shares of planemaker Embraer and pulpmaker Suzano rose.
“We’re not facing the worst-case scenario,” Brazilian Treasury Secretary Rogerio Ceron told reporters. “It’s a more benign outcome than it could have been.”
The new tariffs will go into effect on August 6, not on Friday as Trump announced originally.
In a factsheet about Trump’s executive order on Wednesday, the White House tied the tariffs to Brazil’s prosecution of Bolsonaro, who is standing trial on charges of plotting to overturn his 2022 electoral loss.
Trump’s executive order formalizing a 50% tariff excluded dozens of key Brazilian exports to the United States, including civil aircraft, pig iron, precious metals, wood pulp, energy and fertilizers.
Embraer said an initial review indicated that a 10% tariff imposed by Trump in April remains in place, with the exclusion applying to the additional 40%.
The exceptions are likely a response to concerns from U.S. companies, rather than a step back from Trump’s efforts to influence Brazilian politics, said Rafael Favetti, a partner at political consultancy Fatto Inteligencia Politica in Brasilia.
“This also shows that Brazilian diplomacy did its work correctly by working to raise awareness among U.S. companies,” he said.
Brazilian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mauro Vieira said he met with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday to reaffirm the country’s willingness to negotiate the tariffs, in a sign that negotiations that had stalled in June could restart.
Vieira stressed that Bolsonaro’s legal woes cannot be included in negotiations, he said. The State Department did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
A SMALLER IMPACT
Despite the exemptions, it was too soon to celebrate, said former Brazilian trade secretary Welber Barral, estimating that Brazil exports some 3,000 different products to the United States.
“There will be an impact,” Barral said.
An analysis by the American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil showed that almost 700 products were exempted from the higher tariffs, covering 43.4% of Brazil’s total exports to the United States by value.
Among the top concerns in the government of Lula, Bolsonaro’s leftist rival, was Embraer, which exports 45% of its commercial aircraft and 70% of its executive jets to the United States.
Analysts had also warned of a serious potential impact on Suzano, one the world’s largest wood pulp producers. Embraer shares rose 11% in Sao Paulo, and Suzano gained over 1% in afternoon trading.
Oil lobby group IBP said oil shipments to the U.S., which had been suspended, would resume after oil products were listed as exempt from the new tariffs. Mining lobby Ibram, meanwhile, said the exemptions covered 75% of mining exports.
But other crucial sectors could not dodge Trump’s fusillade.
Wednesday’s executive order did not include exemptions for beef or coffee, two key exports to the United States.
Roberto Perosa, the head of Brazilian meatpacking lobby Abiec, which represents beef producers including JBS and Marfrig, told reporters on Wednesday that the group estimates losses of $1 billion in the second half of this year because of the new tariffs.
Brazilian coffee exporters group Cecafe said in a statement that it will continue working for coffee to be included among the exemptions.
And the battle over the tariffs is set to continue, with the political motivation behind them providing ammunition to plaintiffs who have launched a court challenge.
Alex Jacquez, who served at the White House National Economic Council under then-President Joe Biden, said in a statement that the new tariffs were a clear violation “of both the law and Trump’s own stated trade policy.”
“We run a trade surplus with Brazil – these punitive tariffs will not serve to rebalance any unfair trade, it will only serve to make a cup of coffee more expensive,” he said.
(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes, Gabriel Araujo and Ana Mano in Sao Paulo, Lisandra Paraguassu and Marcela Ayres in Brasilia, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa, and Kanishka Singh in Washington; Writing by Manuela Andreoni; Editing by Brad Haynes and Rosalba O’Brien)
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