Brazil’s Lula Won a Tariff Battle — But Not the War Yet
Brazil’s president has played US tariffs to his initial political advantage, but that’s a strategy with clear time limits. He needs to seal a big deal with the US to avoid real economic pain.
Yes, but about those tariffs….
Photographer: Miguel Schincariol/AFP/Getty Images
Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has emerged as an early winner of Trump’s tariff wars.
The White House’s sloppy announcement last week — a splenetic letter from Trump unveiling 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods from Aug. 1 over his mostly political grievances about the treatment of his ally Jair Bolsonaro — clearly backfired. Initial polls show that, as was evident from the start, most Brazilians saw Trump’s threats as gratuitous meddling in their internal affairs. Both Lula’s personal approval rating and support for his foreign policy ticked up after the episode.