‘Witch Hunt’: US Threatens High Tariffs on Brazil if Bolsonaro’s Trial Continues 

Brazilian officials on Thursday said they were outraged by US interference in their affairs after US President Donald Trump threatened to slap the country with 50 percent tariffs for putting former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro on trial, a move he called a “Witch Hunt,” CNN reported. 

“Brazil is a sovereign nation with independent institutions and will not accept any form of tutelage,” Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva wrote in a post on X. “Any measure to increase tariffs unilaterally will be responded to in light of Brazil’s Law of Economic Reciprocity.” 

The post was in response to one on Wednesday by Trump, who accused Lula of undertaking a “Witch Hunt that should end IMMEDIATELY!”  

Bolsonaro, who has often boasted of his close ties to Trump, is currently on trial for allegedly plotting a coup to overthrow Lula after losing the 2022 presidential election and to murder the current president and other top officials. 

He disputes the charges as politically motivated. 

Bolsonaro is already banned from running for office until 2030.  

Meanwhile, Brazil, which promised to fight back hard against the tariffs, is one of only a handful of countries to stand up to the United States’ threat of tariffs, analysts said.  

The reciprocity law allows trade, investment, and intellectual property agreements to be halted against countries that harm Brazil’s competitiveness, according to the Associated Press. 

Unlike many other countries facing US tariffs, the impact of Brazil imposing these levies would be felt more in the US: Last year, the US had a $6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil, and over the past 15 years, the US has had a cumulative trade surplus of more than $410 billion with the country. 

Other countries have complained that the US is weaponizing tariffs to interfere in domestic matters.  

Earlier this year, the US threatened 25 percent tariffs on Colombian exports, which increased to 50 percent when Colombia refused to accept deportees from the US – Colombia later accepted the deal and prevented the tariffs. 

Trump also slapped tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China, blaming them for contributing to illegal immigration and the flow of fentanyl into the US.