Brazil thought it had gotten off lightly on the Trump tariff front.
In April, US President Donald Trump announced that Brazilian goods imported to the US would face tariffs of 10% - the lowest base rate applied to most countries.
Now, as the 90-day pause on those and other targeted US tariffs is set to expire, Trump has raised Brazil's rate to a whopping 50% – potentially launching a trade war with Latin America's biggest economy, which sells large amounts of beef, coffee, steel and other products to the United States.
The announcement on Wednesday means Brazil will face the highest US tariff rate in the world, at least so far. But this new policy isn't even really about trade.
Earlier this month, Trump falsely claimed that the US runs a trade deficit with Brazil. In fact, it runs a multimillion-dollar surplus, meaning the United States sells more to Brazil than it buys.
