USA and Brazil are involved in trade and tariff disputes Reuters via BBC The British newspaper The Guardian published on Tuesday (14/07) an editorial in which it states that the President of the United States, Donald Trump, uses trade accusations and tariffs against Brazil to attack the country's autonomy. ?? Do you have any reporting suggestions? Send to g1 The US government is expected to announce by this Wednesday (15/07) whether it will apply new tariffs against Brazil as part of a major investigation into Brazilian commercial practices considered unfair by the White House — including attacks on Pix. "Donald Trump's threat of tariffs frames Brazil's efforts to protect its democracy as an unfair trade practice — and gives Bolsonarism a stage in Washington," states the newspaper's editorial. The newspaper states that "Trump rejects the defense" that President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva makes of Brazilian sovereignty.
Trump turns Brazil's autonomy into a commercial offense, says British newspaper about tariffs
USA and Brazil are involved in trade and tariff disputes Reuters via BBC The British newspaper The Guardian published on Tuesday (14/07) an editorial in which it states that the President of the United States, Donald...
"Lula wants Brazil to have the capacity to monitor anti-democratic disinformation [within the country]. Trump believes that the US should have jurisdiction over the country's information space", says the editorial. The text highlights that, last June, the Federal Supreme Court (STF) "reacted to the online lies that helped fuel the failed far-right coup attempt led by Jair Bolsonaro in 2023." The Guardian says that the STF ruled that social media platforms could be held responsible for posts by some users, forcing companies such as Elon Musk's X and Mark Zuckerberg's Meta to remove hate speech and anti-democratic content. "A month later, Donald Trump proposed a 25% tariff on Brazilian imports, complaining that judges had forced US technology companies to take 'political' material off the air," says the British newspaper. The editorial also makes references to US attacks on Pix. "Another issue of sovereignty concerns who controls Brazil's financial infrastructure and whether it is possible to have a successful public payments infrastructure in Latin America that is not under American control," writes the newspaper. "Like India, Brazil has built a public digital infrastructure [Pix] designed to reduce dependence on foreign-controlled payment networks and protect its domestic payments system against external pressure or sanctions. In practice, the system bypasses card networks along the lines of Visa and Mastercard, threatening the profits of these companies." The Guardian editorial also makes reference to the Brazilian elections, in which Lula and senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) appear ahead in the polls. "[Flávio] Bolsonaro is less charismatic than his father, but he is based on the same simplistic anti-leftism, the same punitive 'law and order' policies and the same far-right culture wars", states the newspaper. The Guardian said Flávio Bolsonaro's request to Trump to avoid tariffs against Brazil until the October elections was "extremely audacious". Lula is described as one of the "most successful politicians of this century". "From worker to union leader and party founder, Lula made redistribution the language of Brazilian democracy. Extreme poverty fell from 30 million in 2002 to less than 7 million today. He governed from 2003 to 2011. Brazilian politics is polarized: Lula only returned in 2023 after judges overturned corruption convictions." "[Brazil's] real offense is not protectionism, but autonomy," writes the Guardian. "Trump renamed this Brazilian sovereignty as unfair commercial discrimination. It is as predictable as it is worrying that Bolsonarism is willing to embark on this narrative." READ MORE IN: Brazil could become the 2nd country in the world most charged by the US if Trump confirms new tariffs Why did PIX become a focus of Trump's trade offensive against Brazil?