China has stepped up its support for fellow Brics member Brazil to help offset the impact of US President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on certain imports from Latin America’s biggest economy, which went into effect on 6 August.
The tariff targets 36% of Brazil’s exports to the US, including coffee and beef, two of its biggest industries.
In a social media post on X on 2 August, the Chinese embassy in Brazil announced that Beijing had fast-tracked the approval of 183 new Brazilian coffee companies to export to the Chinese market.
“The measure takes effect on July 30, 2025, and is valid for five years,” the embassy added.
Brazil is the world’s largest coffee producer and exports about 85% of its production annually, with two-thirds produced by family farmers. According to Cecafe, Brazil’s coffee exporters’ council, the US is the country’s top coffee buyer, accounting for about 16% of exports.
According to a White House statement, Trump’s 50% levy on Brazil is in retaliation for the prosecution of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro, a right-wing ally of Trump, is facing trial over an alleged coup attempt after losing the 2022 election to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In a statement responding to the retaliatory tariffs, President Lula said Trump’s use of political arguments to validate trade measures was unjustified.
“Brazil remains willing to negotiate commercial aspects of its relationship with the United States but will not relinquish the country’s defence instruments established in its legislation,” Lula said.
“We have already begun assessing the impact of the measures and formulating actions to support and protect Brazilian workers, companies and families.”
According to Carlos Fávaro, Brazil’s minister for agriculture and livestock – who met with representatives from the country’s agriculture sector on 4 August – those measures include seeking trade opportunities in new markets, such as Asia, the Middle East and Europe.
“We are evaluating internal regulations that can stimulate the consumption of products that were previously mostly exported,” Fávaro said in a statement. “At the same time, we continue with the strategy of opening new markets, which already total almost 400 since the beginning of the Lula government.”
A report by Coffee Intelligence found that coffee is a key source of income for Brazil’s rural economy, which employs more than 8 million people directly and indirectly.
However, a report by Brazil’s EPTV says the US tariff on coffee will impact American companies and consumers more than local growers, as it will change the commodity’s flow of global trade.
“If the United States is going to seek coffee from other origins, other buying countries will have to buy more coffee from Brazil because there is a lack of product in the market,” Breno Paiva, director of Porto Seco do Sul de Minas – a “dry” port located in Minas Gerais, Brazil’s largest coffee-growing state – told EPTV.