Lula Awaits Trump Call Over Proposed 25% Brazil Tariffs

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva is waiting for a phone call from Donald Trump. On Tuesday, June 2nd, he said so publicly, standing in Goiás at the inauguration of a university hospital, his frustration barely contained behind the casual phrasing. The call, he explained, is necessary to clear up a mess that arrived the night before: the U.S. Trade Representative had just recommended slapping 25 percent tariffs on virtually every product Brazil ships to America.

Lula framed the problem as a breach of understanding. In May, the two presidents had met and, by his account, agreed to give their trade ministers thirty days to negotiate. That window was supposed to remain open. Instead, someone—not Trump himself, Lula was careful to note, and not Lula either—had announced these tariffs. The Brazilian president invoked the chemistry Trump had spoken of between them, the rapport that supposedly existed. "You said there was chemistry between us," Lula said. "Whoever announced this didn't come from you or me." He demanded an explanation for what had happened in both men's absence from the negotiating table.

The tariff proposal itself was sweeping. The USTR document, released late Monday night, targeted Brazil's policies on digital commerce, electronic payment services, unfair preferential tariffs, anti-corruption enforcement, intellectual property protection, ethanol market access, and illegal deforestation. The agency determined these practices were unreasonable and burdened American trade, making them actionable under Section 301 of U.S. trade law—a tool that allows Washington to investigate and retaliate against what it deems unfair trading. A handful of Brazilian exports would escape the 25 percent hit: beef, coffee, certain fruits and nuts, spices, oil, and metal ores. Everything else faced the full weight of the tariff.

The U.S. government signaled it would not move immediately. Public hearings are scheduled for July 6th. The deadline for implementing what the USTR calls "corrective measures" is July 15th. That timeline gave Brazil a window, however narrow, to make its case.

The Brazilian government responded with a statement that used the word "indignation." Officials alleged that the investigation itself—initiated in July 2025—had been triggered by the Bolsonaro family, Trump's political allies in Brazil. They pointed specifically to a recent trip Senator Flávio Bolsonaro made to Washington to meet with Trump. The government statement suggested this visit had direct influence on the tariff recommendation. It accused what it called "false patriots" holding public office of conspiring against national interests, and it characterized the tariffs as politically motivated punishment designed to damage employment and income generation in Brazil.

The federal government said it hoped the USTR recommendations would not become actual tariffs. But it also made clear it was prepared to take whatever measures necessary to protect the economy and Brazilian workers if the tariffs took effect. The language was measured but the implication was unmistakable: retaliation was on the table.

Lula's public call for Trump to phone him was unusual—a president essentially demanding a direct conversation to resolve a trade crisis, broadcast to journalists rather than conducted in private channels. It suggested that the normal diplomatic machinery had stalled, that something had broken in the relationship between the two leaders, or at least in the understanding they thought they had reached just weeks earlier. The next move, for now, belonged to Trump.