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THE United States Government has announced a new 25 percent tariff on imports from Brazil to start next week, with beef on the exemption list.

Brazilian beef has been increasing its share of the US market in recent months and has emerged as a major competitor Australian beef in other markets.

Brazil’s Government has had a frosty relationship with President Donald Trump, who at one stage was imposing a 50pc tariff on Brazilian beef imports after the Government laid charges on the former president Jair Bolsonaro.

But by the end of last year, Trump wound back almost all tariffs on beef imports – signalling that the Government was keen to get beef prices down.

This week’s tariff announcement has been about a probe into the trade relationship with Brazil, which concluded that “certain Brazilian measures related to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption interference; intellectual property protection; ethanol market access; and illegal deforestation are unreasonable and burden or restrict the commerce of American farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters.”

In a post on X, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said:

“President Lula and his government have not negotiated with the US in good faith. His economic policies are bad for Americans and bad for Brazilians. For the past year, Lula has put his own ego ahead of making a deal for the welfare of the Brazilian people, and these tariffs are the price for that.”

US trade representative Jamieson Greer echoed Secretary Rubio in announcing the tariffs.

“Safeguarding American economic interests against unfair trade practices is the bedrock of President Trump’s America First policies.  Whether it is punishing U.S. technology companies for refusing to censor political speech, backsliding on anti-corruption enforcement, or allowing Brazilian farmers to exploit illegally logged land to gain an advantage over American farmers, Brazil’s unfair trading practices have prevented U.S. workers and producers from accessing this important market with over 210 million consumers,” said Ambassador Greer.

“Today’s action is necessary to address these unfair trade practices to ensure American workers and companies can compete on a level playing field. Extensive negotiations with Brazil over the past year have not resolved these issues, but we remain open to continuing negotiations.”