The Vice President of the Republic and Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Geraldo Alckmin, stated this Friday (21) that Brazil’s work to remove tariffs continues, even after Donald Trump’s decision the day before to remove the 40% surcharges on part of Brazilian exports.
“We want to reiterate that we remain optimistic and the work is not over. It is moving forward, now with fewer barriers”, he stated.
Alckmin reinforced the desire to exclude more products from surcharges.
represents “the biggest advance” in negotiations between Brazil and the United States so far, according to the vice president.
Alckmin also stated that the share of national products affected by North American surcharges went from 36% to 22% of Brazilian exports, which were equivalent to US$40 billion in 2024.
“Gradually, we had two previous decisions and some products were leaving [do tarifaço] and moved to Section 232. In yesterday’s decision, we had the biggest advance: 238 products left the tariff”, he pointed out.
Sectors that have not yet been included in the list of exceptions should remain on the agenda, according to Alckmin.
“You have some foods: fish, honey, grapes; and some industrial products: machines, engines, shoes. This is the commitment we have ahead of us, but I would say this was the biggest advance,” he said.
Despite the continuity of conversations, the vice president said that there is still no new meeting scheduled between presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) and Donald Trump, but that the Brazilian leader invited the republican to Brazil and was willing to visit Washington for further conversations.
He considers that “there is no prohibited topic” between them and lists “non-tariff” conversations that are also in negotiations between the countries.
“Brazil is attracting investments in the area of data centers. Rare earths, big techs, you have a whole agenda of conversations”, he concluded.
