MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Bolsonaro respects and admires Trump's government

Bolsonaro claimed that such a measure would not have occurred under his administration

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro expressed his “respect and admiration for the United States Government” after Wednesday's announcement that all Brazilian exports would be slapped with a 50% tariff. The retired Army captain insisted that he took the news “with a sense of responsibility.”

Bolsonaro said he believed that the US sanctions were due to Brazil's perceived departure from “its historical commitments to freedom, the rule of law, and the values that have always sustained” the South American country's relationship with “the free world.”

He also emphasized that such a measure would not have occurred under his administration.

Donald Trump's letter to Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva justified the tariff increase by citing “many years of Brazilian tariffs, non-tariff policies, and trade barriers.” Trump also explicitly mentioned Jair Bolsonaro, calling the former president's trial in the Supreme Court “an international embarrassment.”

The Republican leader also mentioned that the tariffs could be adjusted if Brazil opened its commercial markets and eliminated its trade barriers. Earlier, Trump had publicly stated, “Brazil, for example, has not been good to us, not good at all.”

Prior to the official announcement of the tariffs, the Brazilian government, including Vice President and Industry and Trade Minister Geraldo Alckmin, had attempted to negotiate with the US: “I see no reason for a tariff increase in relation to Brazil. Brazil is not a problem for the United States,” Alckmin said.

“We are not going to change our tone, right? The tone has to be the same. We have 200 years of friendship with the United States, two centuries,” he added.

The crisis escalated when the US Embassy released a statement claiming that Jair Bolsonaro and his family were targets of political persecution, which “shames and disrespects Brazil's democratic traditions.”