Brazil's Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira on Thursday accused his US counterpart Marco Rubio of "attacking" President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a "crude and arrogant" manner when commenting on a new tariff decision.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X that Lula had "put his own ego ahead of making a deal ... and these tariffs are the price for that."
Vieira said Rubio's remarks were "unacceptable and offensive."
"Rubio's attacks on the head of state of a friendly nation are crude and arrogant," he said, adding that Lula had always shown himself as willing to negotiate.
"Clearly, what irks the United States government is the fact that Brazil has not bowed to the excessive ambitions and unreasonable demands presented during the negotiations."
Vieira said the tariffs were driven by "political motivation."
Trump is a close ally of far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro and his family. Bolsonaro's eldest son Flavio is Lula's main rival in October presidential elections.
Last year, Washington imposed tariffs on Brazil over a trial which saw Jair Bolsonaro sentenced to 27 years for attempting a coup.
Most of those duties were later lifted after talks between the countries.
Vieira said the US was using a section of its trade act to conduct investigations and impose tariffs after the US Supreme Court struck down a swath of Trump's global duties last year.
"None of the arguments used by the US to justify the tariffs are grounded in reality," he said.
He added that a suggestion that Brazil's PIX payment system created unfair competition for US credit card companies was "not a serious argument."
Washington also argued that illegal deforestation in Brazil makes it hard for the US logging industry to compete in global markets -- which Vieira said was "absurd."
"Since 2022, we have significantly reduced deforestation in the Amazon and the Cerrado," a vast, biodiverse savanna in central Brazil, he said.
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