Bolsonaro son seeks tariff delay as Lula alleges US pressure campaign
Flavio Bolsonaro asked US officials to postpone proposed tariffs on Brazil until after October’s election, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported.
By Daniel Okafor · Business Editor
3 min read
Brazilian Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has asked the Trump administration to hold off on proposed tariffs on Brazilian goods until after October’s general election, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. The request puts a US trade fight at the center of Brazil’s presidential race, where President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has accused the Bolsonaro family of helping trigger the pressure from Washington.
The Trump administration proposed 25 percent tariffs in June, citing alleged trade violations, including illegal deforestation and what it described as unfair practices in electronic payments, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. The move surprised Lula’s government after Lula had said ties were improving following a May White House meeting with President Donald Trump.
The tariff announcement came soon after Bolsonaro met senior US officials in Washington, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. Lula has accused the right-wing senator of lobbying the United States to impose the measures, saying in a social media post last week that “the origin of all this was motivated by the Bolsonaro family itself.”
Lula also called Bolsonaro’s request for a delay until after the election “yet another act of treason against the Fatherland,” according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. Bolsonaro denies Lula’s accusation and says the tariffs would benefit the current Brazilian government politically if Washington moves ahead.
In a filing to the Office of the US Trade Representative, Bolsonaro wrote that new US tariffs on Brazilian goods would give Lula’s government “precisely the political victory it has been engineering,” Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. He asked for a 180-day postponement before any final US decision.
Bolsonaro argued in the filing that Brazil’s October 2026 elections could change the conditions for a possible agreement with Washington. Brazilian officials have spent months trying to persuade US officials not to impose the tariffs, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters, while Bolsonaro says Lula’s government has not done enough to reach terms with the United States.
There has been little public sign that Bolsonaro’s appeal has shifted Washington’s position. In response to a letter Bolsonaro sent last month, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said American officials still had “substantial differences” with Brazil over the issues used to justify the proposed tariffs, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported.
Public opinion in Brazil is divided over responsibility for the dispute. A Quaest poll published last month found that 47 percent of Brazilians agreed with Lula’s claim that Bolsonaro encouraged the United States to impose tariffs, while 35 percent agreed with Bolsonaro’s position that he had tried to stop them, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
Washington has until July 15 to decide whether to impose the tariffs, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. If approved, the measures would not apply to beef, coffee, rare earth minerals or aircraft parts.
The proposed duties would be added to tariffs Trump imposed last year over what he described as a “witch hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, Flavio Bolsonaro’s father, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. Jair Bolsonaro was convicted months later.
Flavio Bolsonaro has made relations with the United States a central theme of his campaign, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. Trump has also taken a more active role in Latin American politics, including backing right-wing candidates in the region, according to the same reporting.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.