Democrats in House, Senate Announce Challenge of Brazil Emergency
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., made a joint announcement July 31 that they will request a vote to end the new International Emergency Economic Powers Act declaration for Brazil, that underpins an additional 40% tariff on a portion of Brazil's exports.
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Although Kaine has had a successful challenge to the IEEPA emergency for Canada, it didn't pass with a veto-proof majority, and the House didn't allow a vote. The Senate is about to go on its August break, so the vote will happen in September.
They said the new tariffs "are being put into place to get the Brazilian Supreme Court to stop its prosecution of Trump’s longtime friend Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s former president, who is facing criminal charges for inciting a violent coup. This is certainly not what tariffs are intended to be used for, and they will raise prices for Americans. That’s why we’ll be introducing legislation to challenge these reckless tariffs against Brazil."
They noted that U.S. firms import nearly $2 billion worth of coffee -- which is subject to the combined 50% emergency tariff -- and more than $40 billion in goods overall annually from Brazil. They said bilateral trade supports nearly 130,000 U.S. jobs.
House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Gregory Meeks also announced on July 31 that he would try to challenge the emergency. Meeks introduced resolutions to roll back all the IEEPA tariffs except those on China, but the House leadership used a technicality to avoid holding votes.
"Donald Trump’s decision to impose 50% tariffs on Brazil isn’t in the interest of American families, who will bear the brunt of these taxes. It’s simply to protect attempted Brazilian coup leader Jair Bolsonaro from prosecution after he, like Trump, tried and failed to overturn the results of a free and fair election," Meeks said in a press release.
He said the tariffs "amount to a unilateral rupture of relations with Brazil, exacerbated by President Trump’s simultaneous decision to levy sanctions against a Brazilian Supreme Court Justice in an attack on Brazil’s sovereignty, rule of law, and democracy."
He added, "There is no national emergency with respect to Brazil, nor any of the other countries for which Donald Trump has claimed them in order to institute more taxes on U.S. consumers."