An executive order Trump signed on Thursday would exempt dozens of popular food items from a 40% levy he imposed on goods from Brazil earlier this year. Last week, the president knocked a separate 10% duty off those items, but did not originally include the higher rate, which was intended to punish the country over its prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro.
The changes are effective retroactive to November 13. A spokesperson for the Brazilian government said it’s analyzing the order.
The decision could help bring down prices of coffee, orange juice and beef in particular, providing a salve for Americans who have struggled under the strain of high grocery bills and given Trump increasingly poor marks over his handling of the economy. Brazil is the world’s largest exporter of coffee and beef. Prior to the implementation of tariffs, it was the largest supplier of coffee to the US. Shipments of Brazilian beef to the US had also been increasing before the levies, due to a cattle shortage that had affected the North American industry.
Tariffs on those items from Brazil, a major South American agricultural power, have exacerbated ongoing shortages in both markets that pushed consumer prices to records. The pullback is a major victory for Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, whose government has long sought to persuade Trump to drop the duties.
Brazil has faced 50% levies for months after Trump hiked them beyond his 10% across-the-board tariff as part of an effort to stop the trial of Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, on coup attempt charges.
High-level talks between the two countries restarted after Trump and Lula briefly crossed paths in New York in September. The two leaders met last month in Malaysia, where Lula asked Trump to lift duties and remove sanctions on Brazilian officials. The leftist leader said afterward that he expected a “definitive solution” with the US soon.
Unlike many of Trump’s tariff targets, Brazil typically runs an annual trade deficit with the US, a point Lula has repeatedly stressed.
Thursday’s move is the latest administration effort to address affordability concerns for American households following elections earlier this month in which Republicans lost a number of high-profile contests with worries about the cost of living front and center. The shift also offers a tacit acknowledgment that the president’s sweeping tariff agenda has helped fuel price pressures on consumers.
Administration officials have defended the tariff exemptions as in line with Trump’s broader strategy, saying the president is merely targeting carve-outs for products that are not produced in sufficient quantities domestically after securing trade deals with major partners.
“What happened is the president said, look, it’s been six months. It’s time. Let’s just wipe the slate clean. If people haven’t made deals with these smaller countries, it’s okay. Let’s cut the price on all these unavailable natural resources, and let’s focus on affordability,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said in an interview earlier Thursday on Fox Business Network.
“The president’s going to focus on the small things that touch the Americans’ pocketbook, and he’s going to bring them all down,” Lutnick added.
