Up to 37.5%. That is the top surcharge the United States now collects on Brazilian goods, and it was the core issue in President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's interview with CNN on Monday (21) in New York. Speaking to journalist Christiane Amanpour, Lula said Donald Trump "acts like an emperor" and that he is weighing how to apply reciprocity if talks over the tariff package stall.
The number reaches household budgets indirectly, but it does reach them. For every US$1,000 in goods sold to the US, up to US$375 is held back as tax at the American border, making Brazilian products pricier than rival goods from other countries. Factories and farms that rely on exports feel the effect in orders, output and jobs.
Lula reprised a criticism he has made on earlier trips. According to G1, he described Trump's stance as "the law of the strongest"; he told Folha de S.Paulo that the Republican "has the right to govern the United States, but not the right to govern other countries". On CNN he called unilateralism "very dangerous" and defended multilateralism, with balanced trade among countries.
"He acts like an emperor. It is a way of governing that I do not agree with. When you say: 'I am strong, I am the biggest, I am the richest, I can do anything and everyone else must obey'... That is the law of the strongest, and I do not agree with that kind of law."
Despite the criticism, Lula said he will exhaust negotiations before any retaliation. "I do not intend to enter a tariff war with the US or with anyone, I want to negotiate," he said, recalling that he learned to bargain in his years as a union leader. He also noted that Brazil runs a trade deficit with the US, meaning it buys more from Americans than it sells to them, which is why he calls the tariffs unjust.
How it works
The American tariff package stacks two charges: a 25% levy anchored in Section 301 of US trade law, motivated by disputes over Pix (Brazil's instant payment system), digital platform regulation and ethanol, plus 12.5% over alleged failures to police forced labor. Brazil's Reciprocity Law, passed unanimously by Congress, lets the government slap surcharges on American goods in response to barriers it deems unfair. Brazil has formally activated the law and opened consultations at the WTO (World Trade Organization), though no practical retaliation has been applied so far.
In practice, beef, coffee and wood pulp made the US exemption list, while ethanol and agricultural machinery are directly hit. Lula said the government must define which products of US interest would enter the Reciprocity Law. "If it is not possible because the US does not want it, we will have to take action," he said.
Lula is in New York to deliver Brazil's opening speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday (22), and no bilateral meeting with Trump is confirmed. In a presidential election year, with the Workers' Party leader running for re-election, he also told CNN that Trump has said to interlocutors he will not interfere in the Brazilian vote, according to InfoMoney. He called the US military action in Venezuela, which captured Nicolás Maduro in January, "grave" and defended elections in the neighboring country.