The vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, said on Saturday that the government will not give up lowering the import rate of Brazilian products to the United States. According to him, the guidance of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is to continue negotiating to reduce the 50% tariff imposed by the Donald Trump government, and try to include more products on the list of exceptions.
“We will not give up downloading this rate and include more products (in exceptions),” he said.
Alckmin’s speech took place in a debate about the national and international political conjuncture at the PT’s national headquarters in Brasilia on Saturday. The event was broadcast on social networks. The vice president classified the taxation as “unjustified” against the US surplus in the relationship with Brazil that in 2024 exceeded $ 25 billion.
“There is no justification to put this fare,” he said.
In an interview with Miriam Leitão at Globo News, Alckmin admitted that the last conversation with US Secretary of Trade, Howard Lutnick, took place a few weeks ago, but said it insists on dialogue between the technical areas.
During the debate at PT headquarters, Alckmin stated that 42% of the products will be 50%, while 16% were included in rates that are also applied to other countries, such as steel, aluminum and copper. However, 37% of Brazilian products were the target of heavier surcharge, such as meat, coffee, fish, fruits, machines and equipment.
Continues after advertising
“These are the ones who suffer most. Because food or meat, if not sell there, I will have another market. Now, manufactured product is harder to relocate. It ends up reallocating, but it takes a little longer,” he explained.
Alckmin stated that the government has sought new markets through commercial agreements and cited Mercosur dealings with EFTA (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), Singapore and United Arab Emirates.
