The United States Trade Representative (USTR) is targeting Brazil with 25 percent duties on a wide range of products following a Section 301 investigation that it said yielded proof that the country engaged in practices that undermine American businesses.
USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer on Monday said that Brazil’s acts, policies and practices related to digital trade and electronic payment services, preferential tariffs, anti-corruption enforcement, the protection of intellectual property, market access for ethanol and illegal deforestation were behind the probe.
U.S. commerce has been burdened by these factors, the USTR said, and the agency is working with Brazil’s government to resolve its concerns ahead of a July 15 statutory deadline.
“I launched this Section 301 investigation at President Trump’s direction to address longstanding and pervasive U.S. concerns with certain of Brazil’s trade policies and practices. Over the past year, President Trump and I have had several constructive meetings with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and his cabinet, which have accelerated in recent weeks,” Greer said in a statement. “However, we continue to have substantial differences in resolving the issues identified in this investigation.”
With regard to the call-out of Brazil’s tariffs, the USTR said the country has undermined the U.S. market by giving preferential treatment to Mexico and India through trade arrangements. Hundreds of products from both countries enter Brazil under lower duty rates than those afforded to American producers, it added.
The Section 301 investigation was initiated in July 2025, with Greer indicating at the time that the administration’s primary point of contention was Brazil’s perceived “attacks” on American social media companies and tech innovators, along with trading practices that harmed U.S. industry including farmers.
The USTR’s proposal comes mere weeks after President Donald Trump met with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—a sitdown he said “went very well.” On May 7, Trump Truthed that the leaders “discussed many topics, including Trade and, specifically, Tariffs.”
The two sides were scheduled to meet again to hash out the details of a trade truce, he said at the time, following months of escalating tensions.
In August 2025, Trump raised tariffs on Brazil to a whopping 50 percent, pointing to the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally who was charged with organizing a coup against Lula following his election victory. The American leader also bemoaned Brazil’s efforts to regulate U.S. tech firms like X, Meta, Google and YouTube.
Perhaps most importantly from a foreign policy perspective, Trump has appeared vexed by Brazil’s leading role in the BRICS Alliance—a trade bloc that includes the most prominent U.S. competitors and adversaries: Russia, India, Iran and China.
The expanding bloc, which also counts South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Indonesia as members, accounts for about 40 percent of global gross domestic product and around 26 percent of worldwide trade. The alliance’s stated goal is to bring together emerging and developing markets, though Trump has clocked that effort as an affront to Western economic dominance.
With regard to the current Section 301 probe and the potential of levying stickier double-digit duties than those invalidated by the Supreme Court earlier this year, the USTR is due to make a decision by mid-July’s deadline. As set out in a Federal Register notice, the public has been invited to provide written comments by July 1, with a hearing about the proposed 25 percent tariffs to take place on July 6.
