US President Donald Trump has announced a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian imports as he accused the country’s leftist leadership of orchestrating a “witch hunt” against his right-wing ally, former leader Jair Bolsonaro.In a letter Wednesday to counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Trump insisted that Bolsonaro’s trial — for allegedly plotting a coup to hold on to power after 2022 elections he lost — “should not be taking place.”Trump has historically reserved his tariff ire for countries with which the United States runs a negative trade balance. Brazil is not one.Analysts say ideological considerations, not economics, are behind the US president’s actions in defense of Bolsonaro, dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics.”- Firm friends -“Brazil came up on Trump’s radar now because Bolsonaro’s trial is advancing and there are Republican lawmakers who brought the issue to the White House,” Leonardo Paz, a political scientist at Brazil’s Getulio Vargas Foundation, told AFP. Eduardo Bolsonaro, the former president’s son and a Brazilian congressman, recently moved to the United States where he lobbies for pressure on Brasilia and the judges presiding over his father’s coup trial. Lula blames Bolsonaro’s son for troubling the bilateral waters, and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes has ordered an investigation into whether the US-based campaign constitutes obstruction of justice.Moraes is an arch foe of Bolsonaro, who has labeled the justice a “dictator.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke in May of a “great possibility” of sanctions against Moraes, who has clashed repeatedly with rightwingers and former Trump ally Elon Musk in a quest to stamp out online disinformation.Bolsonaro calls Trump a “friend” and says they are both victims of “persecution.”- ‘Non-economic reasons’ -In his missive to Lula, Trump complained of “a very unfair trade relationship” with Brazil.But official Brazilian figures show a near two-decade sustained surplus in favor of the United States. Last year, it was almost $284 million.The United States is Brazil’s third-largest trading partner after China and the European Union. It imports mainly crude oil and semi-finished iron and steel products from the South American powerhouse.Brazil in turn primarily imports non-electric engines and machines, and fuel from up north.In a sign of Brazilian business jitters, the Sao Paulo Federation of Industries called Thursday for a “calm” response to the “non-economic reasons” for Trump’s tariffs.Lula has said Brazil would be willing to reciprocate, in spite of Trump’s warning of further escalation if it did so.- Free speech tussle -Trump also complained of Brazilian “attacks” on free speech and “hundreds of SECRET and UNLAWFUL censorship orders to US media platforms” issued by Brazil’s Supreme Court.Last month, the court toughened social media regulation, upping the accountability of platforms for user content in a groundbreaking case for Latin America on the spread of fake news and hate speech.Last year, Moraes blocked Musk’s X platform for 40 days for failing to comply with a series of court orders against online disinformation.He had also ordered the suspension in Brazil of Rumble, a video-sharing platform popular with conservative and far-right voices — including Trump’s son Don Jr. — over its refusal to block a user accused of spreading disinformation.Detractors accuse the judge of running a campaign to stifle free speech.- BRICS brawl -“It didn’t help that the BRICS summit was held in Brazil at a time a narrative exists in the United States portraying the bloc as anti-Western,” said Paz.Meeting in Rio de Janeiro, the group on Sunday spoke out against Trump’s “indiscriminate” tariff hikes, prompting the president to threaten further trade penalties.Members China, Russia and India refrained from hitting back, but Lula took it upon himself to defend the “sovereign” nature of BRICS governments, insisting: “We don’t want an emperor.”Behind the scenes, Brasilia has been negotiating with Washington for months to try and avoid the worst of Trump’s tariff war.A member of Lula’s entourage told AFP that Trump’s attack on Brazil was partly inspired by “discomfort caused by the strength of the BRICS,” whose members account for about half the world’s population and 40 percent of global economic output.

At Cuernavaca’s Grill, a Mexican restaurant in the Fashion District of downtown Los Angeles, owner Nayomie Mendoza is used to seeing customers line up for lunch.But the vibrant neighborhood filled with boutiques and shops has become a ghost town amid raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents carrying out President Donald Trump’s hard-line policy of sweeping up and deporting undocumented immigrants.Even in the early summer season when tourists flock to the southern California city, Mendoza is left staring at empty tables.”A lot of our neighbors are afraid to go out” because of the ICE presence in Los Angeles, Mendoza said, with the city boasting a significant Latino workforce.”Our sales… they’ve been down by 80 percent,” Mendoza told AFP.”It’s hurting more than ever.”The “saving grace” for the restaurant in this time has been delivery orders, she said.- ‘Worse than COVID’ -As a so-called “sanctuary city” with hundreds of thousands of undocumented people, Los Angeles has been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration since the Republican returned to power in January.After ICE raids spurred unrest and protests last month, Trump dispatched the National Guard and US Marines to quell the disruption.Washington does not seem to be backing down anytime soon.”Better get used to us now, because this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles,” US Border Patrol official Gregory Bovino told broadcaster Fox News on Monday.”The federal government is not leaving LA,” he added.Local businesses dependent on foot traffic are the collateral damage of the raids, Mendoza said.”This is probably worse than COVID,” she said, referring to mandatory lockdowns during the pandemic.Manuel Suarez, a street vendor near Cuernavaca’s Grill, agreed.”Now is worse because during the pandemic, even though it was a pandemic, there were sales,” said the toy vendor, who has worked in the Fashion District for 35 years.”Now it’s completely in crisis,” he told AFP.Suarez said many merchants have closed their stores as a precaution as raids intensify in the city, or have otherwise cut the number of employees due to drops in sales.- ‘Cat and mouse’ -“Here in downtown and in LA, there’s been a lot of raids because of ICE, so it has brought fear into our Latin community,” said Jose Yern, manager of Anita’s Bridal Boutique, a Fashion District shop specializing in dresses for Latin American “quinceanera” coming-of-age ceremonies.”They are scared to come in (to the district). But if they’re coming in, they’re coming specifically to a specific store, doing what they need to do, and then heading back home,” he added.Shopkeepers communicate with one another via walkie-talkies, reporting any noise, helicopter or law enforcement presence to warn those who are undocumented.”It’s unfortunate that the government does not understand that when it attacks us, we all lose,” said a vendor who did not want to disclose his name for privacy reasons.”But we are not leaving. What’s going to happen here is that we are going to be playing cat and mouse. Let’s see who tires out first.”

As President Donald Trump ramps up tariff threats on US trading partners, his administration is taking aim at a tactic said to be used by Chinese companies to dodge the levies by moving goods through third countries.The issue is “transshipping,” or having products pass through a country to avoid harsher trade barriers elsewhere, a practice Washington has accused Chinese companies of.”Goods transshipped to evade a higher Tariff will be subject to that higher Tariff,” Trump warned in letters issued since Monday, days after unveiling a trade pact with Vietnam that promised steeper duties for such goods too.”The clause is less about Vietnam per se and more about signaling that rules-of-origin games across the broader Asian production network will attract a premium penalty,” said Barath Harithas, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.He told AFP the White House is likely making two points at once: closing a back door to China and putting the rest of Asia on notice.Noting that Vietnam was “the single biggest winner from Chinese supply-chain diversion since the first Trump tariffs in 2018,” Harithas said the US administration is keen to avoid a repeat of this situation.Ten of the 14 countries first to receive Trump’s tariff letters this week were in Asia and mostly Southeast Asia, which sits between Chinese component suppliers and western consumer markets.”Washington’s message seems to be: ‘Either help us police Chinese evasion or absorb higher duties yourselves,'” Harithas said.- ‘Whack-a-mole’ -“I think it is clear that transshipment of Chinese goods so far this year is massive,” said Robin Brooks, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.While there has been a drop in direct exports from China to the United States, this is “more than offset by” trade shifts elsewhere, he told AFP. In a recent report, Brooks noted that Chinese exports to both Thailand and Vietnam started surging “anomalously” in early 2025 as Trump began threatening widespread tariffs.It is unclear if all of these goods end up in the United States.But he cast doubt on the likelihood that domestic demand in both these countries rocketed right around the time that Washington imposed fresh duties, saying tariffs tend to instead bog down global trade due to uncertainty.Similarly, Chinese exports to the European Union, he said, also rose markedly in early 2025.”It’s a little bit like whack-a-mole,” Brooks said, adding that as long as Washington maintains different tariff rates for different countries, business will try to take advantage of the lowest levels.This in turn could be a reason that US inflation remains muted despite wide-ranging duties including a 10 percent rate on almost all US trading partners, and levels of up to 50 percent on sector-specific imports like steel and aluminum.Transshipment is not a China-specific issue. Concerns also flared in recent years over goods bound for Russia — skirting European export controls — after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.- Complications -But it is difficult to draw a line defining product origins.While Washington may take issue with Chinese-headquartered companies moving production facilities to third countries, for example, many firms genuinely export components for value-added manufacturing to take place.In Vietnam, raw materials from the world’s second biggest economy are the lifeblood of manufacturing industries. There is massive uncertainty over how an incoming 40 percent US tariff on goods passing through the country — double the 20 percent rate applied to Vietnamese goods — might be applied.Emily Benson, head of strategy at Minerva Technology Futures, said the Trump administration appears to be trying to simplify an otherwise complex web of legal definitions.”But whether or not that will work for other trading partners remains to be seen,” she said.While products from China might be impacted, she believes the White House’s intentions stretch beyond Beijing.”They’re trying to load a bunch of negotiations on to this reciprocal (tariffs) vehicle,” she added. “And they want other countries to play by the rules.”