Brazil's Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieira, stated that the United States sought a "capitulation" from the Brazilian government during negotiations regarding tariff increases by demanding the complete opening of the country's markets without any reciprocal concessions, according to a statement from [source missing]. "Agência Brasil"In a statement to the press this Thursday (16), Vieira stated that the US government is bothered by the fact that Brazil “did not bow to the excessive claims and unreasonable demands presented during the negotiations”. “I cite as an example demands for total, unrestricted and exclusive opening to the US of entire sectors of the Brazilian economy, without any counterpart for Brazilian products. In other words, they demanded capitulation,” said Vieira. Yesterday, the US announced an additional 25% tariff on some Brazilian products, alleging “unfair” trade practices on the part of Brazil. The Brazilian government rejects the justifications used for the tariff increase. Chancellor responds to Rubio Also in the statement this Thursday, Vieira rebutted the post by the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, on a social network. Rubio said that the lack of agreement between Brazil and the US was due to the “ego” of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. “What Rubio calls ego is nothing more than President Lula’s unwavering conviction in defending Brazilian sovereignty and the interests of our companies and workers,” countered the Brazilian Foreign Minister. Marco Vieira added that Rubio uses false claims about Brazil’s commitment to negotiating and “crudely and arrogantly attacks the head of state of a friendly country, who personally worked to open negotiation channels on several occasions.” The head of Itamaraty recalled the entire trajectory of trade negotiations between Brazil and the US, highlighting that there have been more than 30 in-person, virtual, and telephone meetings since March 2025. “With Jamieson Green [US Trade Representative/USTR] and Marco Rubio alone, there were 11 contacts, including meetings between the presidents,” Vieira concluded.
Political motivation
The Brazilian government has been arguing that the threat of increased tariffs used by the Trump administration against Brazil is politically motivated, aimed at the elections. According to analysts consulted by [source name/source missing], "Agência Brasil"The measure would be a way to bring the country into line, as it has not adopted the political alignment with Washington that the White House would like. In his statement this Thursday, Minister Mauro Vieira reinforced that there is no justification for adopting tariffs against Brazil. The minister recalled the 50% tariff increase against Brazil in July 2025 "for express political motivation in an attempt to interfere with the Brazilian judiciary," due to the trial for attempted coup d'état led by former President Jair Bolsonaro. Vieira added that it was in the context of the January 8 trial that Trump asked the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to open an investigation against Brazil based on Section 301 of the US Trade Act. "It is worth reiterating that the US has accumulated US$424 billion in a surplus of goods and services with Brazil in the last 15 years. In 2025, 76% of imports originating from the US entered Brazil without paying import tax, including eight of the ten main US products imported by Brazil," Vieira stated. According to the foreign minister, despite the political motivation, Brazil remained active in negotiations, trying to reach an agreement that would avoid the tariff hike announced yesterday. "Therefore, there was no rationality in the application of these tariffs," he said.
Pix and deforestation
Regarding Pix, which is one of the targets of the US investigation into Brazil, the head of Itamaraty (Brazil's Ministry of Foreign Affairs) said that the accusations against the mechanism are "unfounded." "PIX is a public payment infrastructure created by the Central Bank and is available to all institutions operating in Brazil. It is not serious to talk about unfair competition generated by PIX," he said. Minister Mauro Vieira added that the accusations against illegal deforestation in Brazil are also unfounded. "Since 2022, we have significantly reduced deforestation in the Amazon and Cerrado biomes. All the rejections by the Americans to justify the application of tariffs have no basis in reality," he concluded.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.