Brazil’s ministry of industry, foreign trade and services (MDIC) said the 25 percent imports tariff over foreign steel exports to the US will “severally harm” the South American country.
In a letter signed by the minister of foreign relations, Aloysio Nunes, and the minister of foreign trade, Marcos Jorge, the country opposed President Trump’s decision. “The measures will cause serious impact to Brazilian exports and will have a significant negative impact in the bi-lateral trade flow (of both countries),” the statement said.
The ministers said Brazil has tried “several times” to convince Washington that Brazilian steel exports did not put the US national security at risk. Brazil sent a delegation of government officials and representatives of the nation’s steel association, IABr, to Washington early in March, but the country was not excluded in the tariff announcement.
The ministers said the existing bi-lateral trade between the two countries has favored the US over the last 10 years. The ministers argued 80 percent of Brazil’s steel exports to the US are made up of semi-finished steel products used by the US steel industry as feedstock for their operations. “At the same time, Brazil is the US largest coal importer (importing about $1 billion in 2017),” the statement said.
Brazil said it will appeal and employ all needed efforts on both the bi-lateral and multi-lateral fronts to defend its interests.