The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has launched Section 301 investigation against what it said are potentially unfair trade practices used by Brazil, just days after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 50 percent tariffs on the country over claims it was treating former President Jair Bolsonaro unfairly.
According to a release from the USTR, the investigation will focus on a range of topics, including digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption interference; intellectual property protection; ethanol market access; and illegal deforestation and whether those acts “are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict U.S. commerce.”
“At President Trump’s direction, I am launching a Section 301 investigation into Brazil’s attacks on American social media companies as well as other unfair trading practices that harm American companies, workers, farmers, and technology innovators,” USTR Ambassador Jamieson Greer said.
Greer said Brazil’s “unfair trade practices” have been documented in the National Trade Estimate Report, and the USTR’s decision to investigate the potential discriminatory trade practices was made after consulting with other government agencies, advisers, and the U.S. congress.
The USTR release claims Brazil may be undermining the competitiveness of U.S. companies in the digital trade and electronic payment services sectors in the country by “retaliating against them for failing to censor political speech or restricting their ability to provide services in the country.” The USTR also said Brazil gives lower, preferential tariff rates to certain trade partners, disadvantaging U.S. exports, and does not provide adequate protection of intellectual property rights.
The announcement of the investigation came soon after Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva announced the passage of a law that would allow the country to retaliate against potential 50 percent tariffs, and vowed in an interview with CNN the country would not bow to external pressure.
“Brazil is to take care of Brazil and take care of the Brazilian people, and not to take care of the interests of the others,” Lula said. “Brazil will not accept anything imposed on it. We accept negotiation and not imposition.”
