Tariffs should be treated as a commercial agenda, says minister

The Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Márcio Elias Rosa, stated this Wednesday (June 24, 2026) that the issue of US tariffs should be treated as a commercial issue, but that, sometimes, “assumes contours of a political and electoral nature”. The statements were made in an interview with the program Good morning, Minister.

“The Lula government has been negotiating with the USA since the first day that the decisions [do tarifaço] began to be taken over by the North American government. Unfortunately, this issue, which should only be treated as a commercial issue, sometimes takes on political and electoral aspects, in an opportunism that always surprises me. Every time some figures with an opportunistic speech appear on the scene, Brazil pays the bill”said the minister, without mentioning names.

Márcio Elias Rosa also spoke about Pix and declared that the payment method “it’s from Brazil”.

“Pix is ​​ours. The terrible problem is that some people encourage the North American government to be what it has always been: too strong, too big and that they imagine it can cause damage to Brazilian sovereignty”said Márcio Elias Rosa.

The US government proposed on June 1st a 25% tariff on a wide list of products imported from Brazil. Read the complete (PDF – 915 kB).

The measure was presented after a commercial investigation concluded that the country adopted practices considered unfair and harmful to North American companies.

The USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative) document listed topics such as Pix, digital commerce, preferential tariffs, combating corruption, protecting intellectual property, access to the ethanol market and illegal deforestation as targets for the investigation. The final decision on whether to apply the tariff will be up to Trump.

The senator and pre-candidate for President, Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ), he requested to speak at a public hearing in the USA before the final decision on the application of a 25% tariff on Brazilian products.

According to the document presented for registration, Flávio must request the suspension of the fee and propose a “constructive and negotiated resolution of the issues identified in the research”. Read the complete (PDF – 160 kB).

The senator must say that the tariff, “in practice, it would benefit the current government, whose conduct the investigation describes”while it would harm Brazilian exporters, North American importers, US consumers and the Brazilian opposition, “who is the main domestic victim of the conduct in question”.