A powerful lobby group funded by major US tech firms, including Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Uber, may have influenced Donald Trump’s decision to investigate Brazil's “unfair” trade practices.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative last week launched an official investigation into Brazil’s practices on digital trade and electronic payment services, preferential tariffs, anti-corruption enforcement, intellectual property protection, ethanol import rules and illegal deforestation.
The US president announced the probe in a letter to his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, on 9 July. Trump also wrote that Brazilian products would be hit with a 50% US tariff from 1 August, blaming the “witch hunt” against his ally Jair Bolsonaro.
