SAO PAULO, Brazil ¨C A new 25% U.S. tariff will hit a range of Brazilian goods on Wednesday, including farm machinery, wood products, ethanol and apparel, escalating tensions in an already strained relationship between the two most populous countries in the Western Hemisphere.
The tariff is the first levied under the Trump administration¡¯s new strategy of ?using the Trade Act of 1974 to investigate what it considers unfair trade practices. The White House¡¯s blanket assertion of emergency powers ?to levy ?high tariffs against most global partners was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year.
The new tariff ?threatens between $7 billion and $11 billion of Brazilian exports to the U.S., according to estimates from Brazil¡¯s government and National Confederation of Industry (CNI), respectively. That amounts to roughly 18% to 26% of Brazil¡¯s exports to the U.S.
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