Senators arrive in the US to negotiate Trump's tariffs against Brazil

Part of the delegation of senators who intend to negotiate 50% tariffs on Brazilian products arrived in the United States this Saturday (26). Five of the eight parliamentarians who make up the group had a first meeting to “align” the topics that will be discussed: Tereza Cristina (PP-MS), Nelsinho Trad (PSD-MS), Esperidião Amin (PP-SC), Fernando Farias (MDB-AL) and Marcos Pontes (PL-SP).

In a statement, Pontes stated that "the meeting marked the beginning of the delegation's in-person work and aimed to update parliamentarians on priority issues and align the points that should be addressed in meetings with the Americans."

Senators Carlos Viana (Podemos-MG), Jaques Wagner (PT-BA) and Rogério Carvalho (PT-SE) are expected to arrive in Washington this Sunday (27). “The objective of the meetings is to bring the parliament of the two countries closer together in order to facilitate mutual understanding and the processing of projects on important issues for Brazil and the United States,” Pontes highlighted.

On August 9, US President Donald Trump announced that the tariff hike will come into effect on August 1. The Republican claimed that the US has a deficit in its trade relationship with Brazil, a claim refuted by Amcham, the American Chamber of Commerce for Brazil, which reported a US$1.7 billion surplus in the first half of 2025 alone. This represents an increase of approximately 500% compared to the same period in 2024.

Shortly after the announcement, President Lula (PT) pointed out, in a note, that statistics from the American government itself “prove a surplus of that country in the trade of goods and services with Brazil of around 410 billion dollars over the last 15 years”.

In addition to presenting commercial reasons, Trump also criticized Bolsonaro's trial by the Supreme Federal Court (STF) for alleged attempted coup d'état. Amid the impasse, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro (PL-SP) made any negotiations with the Americans conditional on the approval of a "broad, general, and unrestricted" amnesty for those involved in the January 8, 2023, attacks.

Vice President and Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services Geraldo Alckmin is coordinating the working group attempting to negotiate with the United States, but is encountering resistance. On Thursday night (24), in a conversation with journalists, Alckmin stated that he had spoken for 50 minutes with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick last Saturday (19).

Despite this, Lutnick stated this Sunday (27) that the tariffs will come into effect on August 1st “without extensions, without any more grace periods”. Faced with the Executive's difficulties, the senators formed a delegation to try to reopen channels of dialogue with the American Congress.

"We have no choice but to try to return to the way things were before. Many sectors are being harmed—industry, Embraer, agriculture, orange juice and meat sales. This will really affect job creation in Brazil; many layoffs are expected. But we are optimistic that we can reverse this," Nelsinho Trad, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee (CRE), told Rádio Senado on the 24th.

The US House of Representatives began its five-week recess on July 22. The US Senate will remain in session until July 31. Senators are expected to meet first with businesspeople from both countries on Monday (28). Meetings with US lawmakers are expected to take place on Tuesday (29).