Trump mum on steel and aluminum tariffs on Brazil

President Trump would neither confirm nor deny whether the U.S. has any plans to impose aluminum and steel tariffs on Brazil.

Ahead of a dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump declined to make any promises on tariffs but praised U.S.-Brazilian relations, Reuters reported.

“Brazil loves him, and the USA loves him,” Trump said of Bolsonaro during a brief comment to reporters. “The friendship is probably stronger now than it’s ever been.”  

The meeting, the first between the two leaders since roughly a year ago in Washington, will likely involve discussions of Venezuela policy, U.S./Brazil relations and the possibility of a trade agreement between the two nations, a senior U.S. administration official told reporters Saturday.

Despite warm personal feelings between the two and similar politics, the U.S. and Brazil have recently been at odds over American metal tariffs, but Bolsonaro said in December that Trump had assured him no new tariffs on Brazilian aluminum or steel were forthcoming, according to the news service.