President Donald Trump signed executive actions on Wednesday imposing a 50% tariff on Brazil, a 50% tariff on certain copper products and suspending a tax perk for all countries that allowed cheap packages to fly into the US duty-free.
Taken together, the moves represented a significant escalation of his administration’s trade war that could increase the prices that US consumers pay on certain goods.
Trump had previously threatened to impose the 50% tariff on Brazil effective August 1 in a letter he sent earlier this month to the country’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. In that letter, Trump threatened the hefty tariff if Brazil did not end its trial against right-wing former president, Jair Bolsonaro.
The order that Trump signed on Wednesday, which increases Brazil’s tariff by 40% effective early next month, accuses the Brazilian government of “serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil.”
In a separate presidential proclamation, Trump imposed “universal 50% tariffs on imports of semi-finished copper products,” including pipes, wires, and sheets, and “copper-intensive derivative products,” the White House said in a fact sheet. It characterized the move as critical for US national security, saying that Trump “is leveling the playing field for U.S. copper businesses to support a strong domestic copper industry.”
Those new tariffs will go into effect August 1, and include exceptions for copper products already subject to the president’s auto tariffs.
Copper is a crucial component in a variety of goods, including electronics, machinery and cars, and tariffs on the source material could make those products more expensive. The US imported $17 billion worth of copper last year, according to US Commerce Department data. Chile was the largest foreign supplier of the metal, shipping $6 billion worth of it to the US last year.
Finally, Trump suspended a tax perk for all countries known as the “de minimis exemption,” which allowed duty-free shipments of goods worth $800 or less. Trump had previously targeted the exemption in the US-China trade war, but the latest move closes the option of back-door shipments through other countries. That will particularly impact e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu.
The executive order noted that Americans returning from travel abroad can still bring back up to $200 in personal items or can receive gifts valued at $100 or less duty-free. Customs and Border Protection previously told CNN it currently processes “nearly 4 million duty-free de minimis shipments a day.” Research indicates that a majority of those shipments come from China and Hong Kong. In total, over the last fiscal year, CBP said 1.36 billion packages came to the US under the de minimis exemption.
The Trump administration slashed the de minimis exemption on China in May, cutting the tariff on those cheap packages from 120% to 54% and slashing the rate from 145% to 30% for packages from commercial carriers.
The new tariff on Brazil appeared to be spurred by non-economic matters.
Bolsonaro, who has bragged about his closeness with Trump, is facing trial for allegedly attempting to stage a coup against Lula. Trump has publicly objected to that proceeding, and his order alleged Bolsonaro’s prosecution was “politically motivated.”
“The Order finds that the Government of Brazil’s politically motivated persecution, intimidation, harassment, censorship, and prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and thousands of his supporters are serious human rights abuses that have undermined the rule of law in Brazil,” the order reads.
The announcement of the increased tariff rate comes the same day that the United States is sanctioning Brazilian Justice Alexandre de Moraes, 12 days after announcing visa restrictions against him and other court officials over Bolsonaro’s trial.
This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.
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