President Donald Trump has rolled back a 40 percent tariff on more than 200 Brazilian agricultural and livestock products, including beef, coffee, cocoa, vegetables, and some ammonia-based fertilizers.
The tariffs were originally part of a broader trade dispute, but they have been reduced as part of the Trump administration’s effort to lower consumer costs for Americans. The move follows negotiations with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The White House issued an executive order to eliminate punitive tariffs on some agricultural products from Brazil on Thursday.
The refund of the duties collected since April 13, when the executive order took effect, will be handled by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The newly added exemption list covers around 250 categories in the 8-digit subheadings of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States, including coffee, bovine meat, tomatoes, tea, spices, fruits and nuts.
Trump initially imposed a 10 percent tariff on nearly all countries and later added a 40 percent penalty specifically on Brazil, bringing some goods’ total tariffs to 50 percent.
The punitive tariffs were imposed in response to the prosecution and 27-year prison sentence of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, for attempting a coup after losing the 2022 election to Lula.
Last week, the general 10 percent tariff on Brazilian agricultural goods was already lifted.
Trump had signed the original executive order on July 30, citing “politically motivated persecution” of Bolsonaro and labeling Brazil’s actions a “threat to U.S. national security and the economy.”
