Trump administration proposes 25% tariffs on Brazil despite US trade surplus

US claims world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in ‘unreasonable’ trade practices that ‘restrict US commerce’

The Trump administration proposed 25% tariffs on imports from Brazil , charging that the world’s 10th-biggest economy engages in trade practices that are “unreasonable’’ and that “burden or restrict US commerce”.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he received the decision “with indignation”. The Brazil president also blamed the decision by the US administration on his rival in October’s elections, Flávio Bolsonaro , the senator who visited Washington last week. The senator is the son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, once nicknamed “the Trump of the Tropics” by his allies.

The announcement late on Monday came after an investigation by the office of the US trade representative, charging Brazil with lax anti-corruption enforcement and unfair tariffs of its own, among other things.

The US trade representative, Jamieson Greer, said that he and Donald Trump had “constructive’’ meetings with Lula and other Brazilian officials. But he said: “We continue to have substantial differences in resolving the issues identified in this investigation.’’

Lula on Tuesday cited other reasons for the punishing tariff proposal. For the first time he named an American official as a hurdle to his relations with Trump and once again he threatened to retaliate.

“I spoke to President Trump for three hours, and that Marco Rubio guy, the head of the state department, he is anti-Latin American,” Lula said. “He is a deadly enemy of Cuba, a deadly enemy of many Latin American countries. I already told Trump that he does not like Brazil.”

The US state department did not immediately respond a request for comment from the Associated Press on Tuesday.