On Thursday, February 13th, Brazil’s Energy and Mining Minister, Alexandre Silveira spoke out against a potential tariff on Brazilian ethanol, calling it unreasonable. This comes after President Donald Trump has increased tariffs significantly since the beginning of his presidency. Historically, the tariff the US has on Brazilian ethanol was only 2.5%, while Brazil imposed an 18% tariff on US ethanol exports. With the rise in percentage, Brazil worries it won’t be able to continue exporting consistently, or the same amounts, that it has been in the past, and thus the US should eliminate sugar tariffs on Brazil. Silveira emphasizes that the US is the world’s largest economy, and therefore they can lower tariffs.
Trump has not commented on this yet, though Brazil’s Finance Minister Fernando Haddad says he can see discussions of these tariffs happening in the near future. Right now, the partnership between Brazil and the US is mostly economic as Brazil is a large agricultural industry and imports a lot to the US, but it also does a lot of trade with China. Brazil is arguably the most powerful south american country and it would be good for the US to keep ties with Brazil, even though due to our economy we don’t really need them. But if the US wants to grow their foothold against China in South America it would be prudent to lower tariffs and keep Brazil happy, as it is steadily developing as a regional power.
The actions/claims of both countries come to national interest. President Trump claims that his increasing tariffs is so that when imported products become more expensive and less affordable, US citizens will turn to american businesses instead and thus increase those businesses money making. Brazil spoke out because the US is one of its biggest trade partners and to possibly lose that because Brazil can’t afford US tariffs could negatively affect the industries that export, of which is mainly agricultural. It is likely that Trump and Brazil’s leaders will meet to negotiate, though I expect Trump will continue to push these tariffs.