‘Head up and look in the eye’: understand Brazil’s strategy when initiating reciprocity against the USA

At the end of last week, Brazil formalized the beginning of the reciprocity process due to tariffs imposed by the United States on Brazilian products. However, the mechanism itself is not yet valid.

In an interview with BdF Connectionyes Radio Brasil de Fatointernational analyst Henrique Gomes, a doctoral student at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), explains that it is a process that should be slow and includes several bureaucratic procedures. “This is a bargain for the Brazilian government, because, while this process is ongoing, the idea is to dialogue with the United States and perhaps get the United States itself to withdraw its tariffs and, as a result, reciprocal tariffs would not be necessary”, he explains.

Gomes explains that the rites of this process include investigation of the economic impacts that a possible tariff could have on the economy of the countries involved and the justification for applying the sanction, which, in the case of Brazil, does not seem to be real. “The Brazilian government has documents that state that all the arguments used by the US government to impose tariffs against Brazil are not justified, pointing out that there is no disproportionate competition between Brazil and the US production sector”, he assesses.

Henrique Gomes considers that, despite the ongoing diplomatic crisis between Brazil and the USA, the Brazilian government is not wrong in taking a firm stance against yet another arbitrary decision by President Donald Trump, especially given the evidence of an attempt to interfere in the elections.

“The Trump government has this position of global bullying, which is to bully every country in the world and impose itself. And Brazil precisely wants to continue with its head held high and look people in the eye, and also to impose itself against this bullying in the United States. Now it has been considered that reciprocity is the necessary means for Brazil to reaffirm its sovereignty”, he assesses.

To listen and watch

The newspaper BdF Connection airs in two editions, from Monday to Friday: the first at 12pm and the second at 5pm, on Radio Brasil de Fato98.9 FM in Greater São Paulo, with simultaneous transmission also on YouTube do Brasil de Fato.