Brazil says US tariffs are unjustified
The Brazilian government issued a statement condemning the United States’ decision, announced on Wednesday (Jul. 15), to impose 25 percent tariffs on products from Brazil. The tariffs take effect on July 22 following investigations by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR).
The release, published by the government’s Secretariat for Social Communication (Secom), emphasizes that Brazil does not recognize the legitimacy of the investigations and that they are not supported by multilateral trade rules. It adds that there is no justification for unilateral measures by the United States against Brazil.
“July 15, 2026, will go down in the history of Brazil-US relations as a regrettable milestone.”
The announcement also states that Brazil will immediately invoke the Reciprocity Law and pursue dispute settlement mechanisms within the World Trade Organization (WTO).
“Brazil will immediately begin the process of invoking the measures provided for under the Reciprocity Act, which was unanimously approved by Congress, and will once again raise the issue through the WTO dispute settlement mechanism,” the note reads.
Allegations
The USTR investigation launched a year ago concluded that certain Brazilian practices are unreasonable and burden or restrict trade for US farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters.
Among the issues cited by the USTR are “digital trade practices and electronic payment services (Pix), unfair preferential tariffs, anti-corruption enforcement, intellectual property protection, access to the ethanol market, and illegal deforestation.”
In its defense, the Brazilian government says that the allegations regarding Pix - the country’s most widely used instant mobile payment system - and the regulation of digital platforms are unfounded.
“The allegations regarding deforestation are equally absurd. Pix is a treasure of our people and an international benchmark for digital public infrastructure. In Brazil, we will not give up protecting our families and our children from the greed of a handful of techno-oligarchs,” the declaration reads.
The statement goes on to say: “Freedom of expression is not a free pass for criminal activity. It is widely recognized that, since 2023, Brazil has been vigorously combating environmental crimes and dramatically reducing deforestation across all Brazilian biomes.”
The Brazilian government’s communiqué emphasizes that, during the USTR’s public hearings last week, 78 private-sector representatives from both countries provided interventions, 63 of them opposing the US tariffs.
“According to US government statistics, the United States has accumulated a trade surplus of USD 424.5 billion in goods and services with Brazil over the past 15 years. In 2025, 76 percent of imports from the US entered Brazil duty-free, while the average effective tariff applied to US products was just 3.1 percent,” the government’s note adds.
The statement concludes by noting that Brazil will continue to adopt measures to mitigate the damage to the country’s economy and its people, while continuing to diversify its trading partners and open new markets for Brazilian products.
“Through the Sovereign Brazil Plan, we will maintain protective measures for sectors affected by illegal and arbitrarily imposed tariffs by the US government, thereby safeguarding jobs and national production capacity.”
