Brazil hails ‘significant progress’ after tariff rollback, seeks more exemptions

Brazil’s Vice President Geraldo Alckmin on Friday hailed US President Donald Trump’s order to remove the additional import tariffs on some agribusiness products as “significant progress”, but said the country will keep pushing for more exemptions.

“We want to exclude more products and move forward in the negotiation,” he told journalists in Brasilia. Alckmin, who also serves as trade minister, led the negotiations with the United States along with Brazilian diplomats and business leaders.

Cecafé, Brazil’s coffee exporters council, celebrated Trump’s latest order and called the tariff hike “a complete loss of competitiveness.”

“The tariff reversal comes after months of intense work representing the interests of Brazilian coffee. It is a historic victory for the entire coffee agribusiness production chain,” the council said in a statement.

Brazil has long been a key supplier of beef and coffee to the United States. On Thursday, Trump lifted tariffs on Brazilian goods as part of an effort to lower consumer costs for Americans. The decision affected coffee, fruit and beef, among other products.

The US leader had imposed additional import taxes on Brazilian goods, citing trade practices he deemed unfair and the prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who was later sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting to stage a coup after losing the 2022 election. The US ran a US$6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year, according to the Census Bureau.

Before the tariffs, US government data showed Brazil, the world’s top coffee producer, supplied about 30 per cent of the American market, followed by Colombia at roughly 20 per cent and Vietnam at about 10 per cent.

“The removal of the 40 per cent tariff imposed by the US government on several Brazilian agricultural products is a victory for dialogue, diplomacy and common sense,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said Thursday on X. He also shared a video reacting to Trump’s order, saying he was pleased with the decision.

Trump and Lula have been negotiating over trade, which could further reduce tariffs. Lula also praised “the frank dialogue” with Trump, and said that Brazil would continue talks.

AP