Sao Paulo: Brazil, the second-biggest supplier of steel to the United States, is not planning to retaliate against the tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump on its steel exports, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said yesterday.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “has decided we will not proceed in that manner,” Haddad told reporters, adding that Lula had called for “much calm” in the face of the 25-percent tariffs that came into effect on steel and aluminum at midnight.
“We have negotiated in less favorable conditions than these in the past,” Haddad said after a meeting in the capital Brasilia with representatives of the steel industry.
Brazil’s show of restraint, which mirrors that of fellow Latin American heavyweight Mexico, marks a change in stance from Lula’s threat last month to respond with “reciprocity” to the steel
tariffs.
Haddad argued that the United States “only stands to lose” from the increased levies, arguing that the trade between Washington and Latin America’s biggest economy is “very balanced.”
In a joint statement the foreign and industry ministries said they would study “all the possibilities for action in the field of external trade” in order to “counteract the harmful effects of the US measures”, including measures “together with the World Trade Organization.”
The two ministries added that further talks with Washington on the issue were planning “in the coming weeks” after a first round of negotiations last week.
In a telephone call on March 7, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and new US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer had agreed to create “a working group... to address tariff issues,” the foreign ministry wrote on the social network X.
Trump has adopted a punitive approach to countries that have a large trade surplus with the United States.
In the case of Brazil, however, the balance is in the United States’ favor.
