😵💫 US tariffs keep piling on
A day after recommending 25% tariffs on Brazil, the USTR escalated again
In this issue:
The USTR’s tariff one-two raises the stakes for Brazil-US relations.
Budget cuts spark worries about regulatory agencies, particularly in civil aviation.
Senate obstacles to workweek proposal.
The USTR drops another hammer on Brazil
As Brasília was still gauging the fallout from the US Trade Representative’s call for 25% tariffs on many Brazilian exports — over what Washington calls “unfair trade practices” — the office dropped another bombshell: it found that 54 economies, Brazil included, had failed to ban imports made with forced labor, and proposed an additional 12.5% duty on their goods.
👉 Why it matters. Layered onto the 10% blanket levy President Donald Trump applied to all trading partners in February, both measures read less like a negotiation than an effective slow-motion embargo on Brazil’s manufactured exports.
