USA confirms new 25% tariff on Brazilian products The Brazilian government analyzed the technical document from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), responsible for investigating and proposing the new tariff, and identified a section that is repeated more than ten times. On the first page of the technical document, the excerpt mentioned by the government appears: "In accordance with the specific determination of the President, the Commercial Representative is adopting measures to impose tariffs of 25% on all imports from Brazil, with some exceptions", says the summary of the document, for example. The argument that there is a “specific determination by President” Donald Trump regarding this case was used frequently in the pages of the document. In the opinion of the Ministry of Finance, this reinforces the perception that the case against Brazil was conducted in a political manner. The new 25% tariff applied to Brazilian products arose from an investigation opened last year, at Trump's request. The process was initiated by alleged “unfair trade practices by Brazil that have restricted the access of American exporters to its market for decades”. After the investigation, the USTR concluded by recommending a surcharge on thousands of Brazilian products. On Wednesday (15), the Trump government confirmed the new tariff, which will come into effect on July 22. Lula and Trump met at the White House Ricardo Stuckert / PR Other countries The Ministry of Finance carried out an analysis of other technical documents, similar to the one concluding the case against Brazil, released yesterday. The preliminary comparison showed that in other cases there was no mention of determinations by the North American president, such as: investigations into digital taxes, against France, India, Turkey, Austria, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, among others; investigation into labor and human rights, against Nicaragua (labor and human rights). In cases against China, similar expressions appeared, such as “presidential guidance”. These involved cases that led to US-enforced tariffs, such as the 2018–2019 tariff tranches, and a 2025 investigation into compliance with a trade agreement with the United States. The USTR may open investigations on its own. So, for the Ministry of Finance, placing this “stamp” that it is a White House determination reinforces that the issue is not technical, as the resolution channel would be political-presidential. The department also assesses that the frequent use of this expression in the document may even serve to protect technicians from possible administrative questions – common in the public service to investigate the conduct of technical employees.