USA06 July, 20263 min read
Flavio Bolsonaro Urges Trump To Delay Brazil Tariffs Until After October 2026 Election
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Flavio Bolsonaro urged delaying a 25% tariff on Brazilian goods until after Brazil's October election. Tariffs proposed by the Trump administration in June.
Tariffs and Election Timing
Brazilian presidential hopeful Flavio Bolsonaro, the son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, urged the Trump administration to delay proposed tariffs on Brazilian goods until after October’s election, as he sought to counter accusations from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva that his family helped bring them about. The Trump administration proposed 25 percent tariffs in June, citing alleged trade violations including illegal deforestation and what it called unfair electronic payment practices, and the proposal came as a surprise to Brazil’s government after Lula said relations were improving following a White House meeting with Trump in May. Bolsonaro said he was calling for a 180-day delay before any final decision, writing that “Brazil holds general elections in October 2026” and that the political landscape would be “redefined within roughly ninety days.”
Washington has until July 15 to decide whether to impose the tariffs, which if approved would still exempt beef, coffee, rare earth minerals and aircraft parts, and would come on top of tariffs Trump imposed last year described as a “witch hunt” against Jair Bolsonaro. The dispute has left Brazilians split, with a Quaest poll finding 47 percent agreed with Lula’s claim that Bolsonaro encouraged the United States to impose tariffs, while 35 percent agreed with Bolsonaro that he had tried to stop them.
Lula Accuses, Bolsonaro Denies
Lula accused Bolsonaro of lobbying Washington to impose the tariffs after Bolsonaro met senior US officials in Washington, and Lula later intensified those accusations in a social media post.
In that post, Lula wrote, “the origin of all this was motivated by the Bolsonaro family itself” and described Bolsonaro’s request to delay the tariffs until after the election as “yet another act of treason against the Fatherland”.
Bolsonaro rejected the allegation, arguing that the tariffs would politically benefit Lula’s government, and he wrote in a submission to the Office of the US Trade Representative that “New US tariffs on Brazilian products would hand the current Brazilian government precisely the political victory it has been engineering.”
The Straits Times reported that the government said in a statement shortly after the senator met with U.S. President Donald Trump that it was “deplorable that, once again, members of the Bolsonaro family are traveling to the United States to advocate for foreign interference in Brazil.”
The Straits Times also quoted Leonardo Paz, a professor of international affairs at Ibmec and Fundacao Getulio Vargas, saying, “They are trying to do damage control” as Bolsonaro sought to distance himself from the U.S. levies.
Rubio Response and Stakes
Despite Bolsonaro’s push for an election-linked delay, a response to a letter Bolsonaro sent last month said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told him that US officials still had “substantial differences” with Brazil over the issues cited to justify the proposed tariffs. The Straits Times reported that Rubio wrote that U.S. officials “continue to have substantial differences in resolving the issues” identified as justification for the proposed measures, underscoring that Bolsonaro’s efforts had “little impact.” The dispute is tied to broader U.S.-Brazil tensions over tariffs and alleged interference in Brazilian politics, with the Straits Times describing Bolsonaro’s trip to Washington as part of a broader push by his family to win support from the Trump administration.
Al Jazeera reported that Bolsonaro’s campaign made Brazil’s relationship with the United States a central issue, as Trump took a more active role in Latin American politics including backing right-wing candidates across the region. In the background of the tariff fight, Al Jazeera noted that Trump’s administration proposed the tariffs in June and that the decision deadline is July 15, while the political calendar Bolsonaro cited runs through October’s election.