Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has hit back at US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a 50% tariff on Brazilian exports to the United States, warning that it would be addressed in terms of Brazil’s Reciprocity Law.

President Lula, who just presided over a BRICS Leaders’ Summit in Rio de Janeiro, responded on social media to a letter in which President Trump announced a 50% tariff from August 1st in which he also railed against the trial former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro who faces coup charges for allegedly seeking to remain in power after losing the 2022 Presidential election to Lula.

Trump’s letter posted to Truth Social said the treatment of Bolsonaro was an international disgrace, calling his trial a witch hunt that should not be taking place – echoing his judicial woes before winning last November’s election which squashed his own legal peril.

Trump indicated that the 50% tariff was linked to what he called Brazil’s insidious attacks on free elections and censorship orders against American social media companies.

President Lula responded that Brazil was a sovereign nation with independent institutions and would not accept any form of tutelage, arguing that all companies operating in country had to comply with Brazilian law.