In his competition against Lula, Flavio Bolsonaro is actively engaging with Washington to postpone the tariff on Brazil
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro intends to advocate for the Trump administration at a Washington hearing on Monday to postpone a proposed 25% tariff on Brazilian goods until after the country’s October election, aiming to separate himself from U.S. tariffs attributed to his faction.
In June, the Trump administration put forward tariffs on Brazilian goods due to alleged trade violations, including illegal deforestation and what it describes as unfair electronic payment practices. This proposal came shortly after presidential hopeful Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, met with senior U.S. officials.
The sequence of events led President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is anticipated to seek reelection, to accuse the right-wing senator of contributing to the initiation of the measure, a claim the senator refutes. “It is regrettable that, once again, members of the Bolsonaro family are journeying to the United States to promote foreign interference in Brazil,” the government stated shortly after the senator’s meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
The younger Bolsonaro’s effort to elevate U.S.-Brazil relations as a campaign topic closely mirrors Trump’s increasing involvement in Latin America, which has involved actions like the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas and backing right-wing presidential candidates, including Colombia’s Abelardo De La Espriella, who recently secured a narrow victory.
Trump’s approach to Latin America
However, new U.S. tariffs on Brazilian products “would provide the current Brazilian government with exactly the political victory it has been orchestrating,” Bolsonaro contended in a filing with the U.S. Trade Representative.
According to a survey published last month by polling firm Quaest, 47% of Brazilians supported Lula, who accused Bolsonaro of requesting the U.S. to impose new tariffs on Brazilian goods, while 35% sided with Bolsonaro, who claimed he asked for the opposite. “They are trying to do damage control,” stated Leonardo Paz, a professor of international affairs at IBMEC and Fundacao Getulio Vargas, two academic institutions in Rio de Janeiro.
SENATOR SUGGESTS 180-DAY SUSPENSION
Brazilian officials have engaged in negotiations with their U.S. counterparts for several months to prevent the imposition of new tariffs.
Bolsonaro argued that Brazil had not made sufficient efforts to find common ground with the U.S. and proposed a 180-day pause before any decision regarding the levies. “In October 2026, Brazil will hold general elections, and the political landscape that influences the feasibility of any negotiated resolution will undergo significant changes in approximately ninety days,” Bolsonaro stated in his submission to the USTR.
The U.S. has until July 15 to determine whether to implement the Section 301 tariffs, which would continue to exclude products like beef, coffee, rare earths, and aircraft parts.
Bolsonaro’s recent visit to Washington is a component of a larger effort by his family to garner backing from the Trump administration, which also involved discussions last year aimed at seeking White House involvement in the trial of the elder Bolsonaro regarding his attempt to reverse his 2022 election loss.
Last year, Trump enacted significant tariffs on Brazilian goods, citing a witch hunt against Bolsonaro as the reason for his actions. The ex-president was found guilty months afterward.
So far, the senator’s efforts to avert new tariffs seem to have had minimal effect.
In response to a letter from Senator Bolsonaro last month, which urged Washington to refrain from imposing further levies on Brazilian products, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that U.S. officials “continue to have substantial differences in resolving the issues” identified as reasons for the proposed measures.
