On August 1st, President Donald Trump imposed 50 percent tariffs on a host of Brazilian products—currently the highest for any country in the world other than India. The White House’s nonsensical pretext is that Brazil posed unfair trade barriers to US exports and violated the human rights of former president and Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023)—who is currently on trial by Brazil’s top constitutional court (STF) and is barred from running for office. Considering that Brazil is one of the few nations with which the US maintains a trade surplus, it’s fair to say that the current tariffs aren’t trade related.
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