Supply Lines

Brazil Goes From Big Loser to Winner in Trade Showdown With Trump

Once facing the harshest of the US’s import taxes, Brazil gets off easier in Trump’s revised strategy
Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, right, greets Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president, in New Delhi on Feb. 21, 2026.Photographer: Prakash Singh/Bloomberg
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Brazil turned the other cheek when Donald Trump slapped 50% tariffs on its goods last year, refusing to retaliate even as it faced some of the most painful levies in the US president’s arsenal.

It’s a strategy that paid off last week, when the Supreme Court invalidated Trump’s sweeping global tariffs, turning Brazil and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva into perhaps the world’s biggest winners, for now.