00:00Let's talk to Amanda Castella, Professor of Economics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
00:05Professor, welcome, good to see you.
00:06So, President Trump accusing Brazil of being a bad trade partner.
00:11How would you assess the current state of U.S.-Brazilian relations?
00:17Well, they have become surprisingly tense when there was Liberation Day, beginning of April,
00:24because the U.S. has a trade surplus of Brazil.
00:26So, Brazil was hit with 10% taxes, tariffs on imports.
00:32So, it was a big surprise that in July, President Trump imposed much higher tariffs on Brazilian exports to the U.S.
00:41on many, many different justifications, obviously not trade itself, in the sense that, as I say, the U.S. has a trade surplus with Brazil,
00:52but peaks on many other political subjects.
00:57So, it became much more tense, increasing its tension, application of legislation in the U.S., the Brazilian banks,
01:08discussion on many, many other subjects that probably are going to come up over the next months.
01:12The son of Brazil's former President Bolsonaro has praised President Trump for imposing massive tariffs on his home country.
01:22I mean, with friends like that, who needs enemies?
01:24I mean, presumably, there's an element of internal politicking going on here.
01:27Yeah, there's a very clear political side to this tariffs.
01:34In fact, if you look at the executive order that President Trump signed in July,
01:41establishing the additional tariffs on exports from Brazil to the U.S. of 40% tariffs,
01:47the justification is totally political.
01:49It explicitly says, at the end, that if Brazil aligns more with the U.S. in politics, in international policies,
02:00a lot of issues have to do with the BRICS, for instance, that President Trump could review those tariffs.
02:06So, it was very clear the political aspect in the tax of the executive order that established these tariffs.
02:14Obviously, one of these political sides is the judgment of former President Jair Bolsonaro,
02:20the father of the congressman that he mentioned, Eduardo Bolsonaro.
02:25There's a lot of pressure on the Brazilian Supreme Court on its judgment.
02:31There is a view, at least in Brazil, that President Trump sees himself in the shoes of former President Bolsonaro
02:38in the sense that were he not re-elected last November, he might be the one now facing similar charge.
02:46So, there's like many components related to politics, both domestic and foreign policy of Brazil,
02:54that are used explicitly, and I mean, it's not inferred, it's explicitly stated as reasons for these tariffs.
Comments