🪨🏃‍♂️ Sisyphean trade talks

Brazil's industry and trade minister, Márcio Elias Rosa, confirmed a video call with Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, for next Monday. It is the first (and will probably be the only) tangible result of the 80-minute conversation between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Donald Trump on Aug. 21, which the Brazilian government called cordial.

The sum in dispute is small by the standards of Trump's trade wars and large by those of Brazilian politics. In July, closing a year-long Section 301 investigation, the USTR imposed a 25% surtax on Brazilian iron and steel, apparel, footwear, sugar, ethanol, and pharmaceuticals. A further 12.5% landed on some 60 economies accused of failing to curb the import of goods made with forced labor. 

The Industry and Trade Ministry estimates that…

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