Amazon Fires Spark Democrats’ Concern About U.S.-Brazil Trade

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A group of Democratic senators is asking the Trump administration to postpone future trade negotiations with Brazil until President Jair Bolsonaro takes action to protect the Amazon rainforest.

“This is an international crisis with national security implications for the United States,” the senators say in a letter addressed to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. “Absent meaningful action by President Bolsonaro to protect the Amazon, the United States must make it clear that it will not negotiate with Brazil on trade.”

President Donald Trump tweeted his support for Bolsonaro in August and said trade prospects between the U.S. and Brazil are “very exciting.”

The Trump administration has not notified Congress of any trade talks with Brazil. The European Union has a trade deal negotiated with Brazil through Mercosur, the South American customs union. France and some other countries have threatened to block ratification of that deal as a reaction to Bolsonaro’s stance on climate change.

Read More: Bolsonaro’s Words Are the Sparks as Brazil’s Farmers Burn Amazonia

The letter is signed by Senators Chris Murphy, Brian Schatz, Sheldon Whitehouse, Tom Udall, Kirsten Gillibrand, Patrick Leahy, Cory Booker, Chris Van Hollen, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Richard Blumenthal.

The senators also ask Lighthizer to shelve any plans to resume Brazil’s beef exports to the U.S., given the impact of the meat industry on illegal deforestation. In addition, the letter urges the administration to end the U.S.-China trade war, noting that exports of soybeans to China from Brazil have increased, which leads to more of the Amazon being cleared for farmland.

“Without stronger protections in place, allowing Brazil’s beef back into U.S. markets will only accelerate the destruction of the Amazon,” the lawmakers write.

The U.S. banned Brazilian beef in 2017 over violations of American sanitary standards. After a March meeting in Washington between Bolsonaro and Trump, the U.S. agreed to audit Brazilian meatpackers and the country’s beef-inspection system in order to allow for the resumption of shipments. The inspections were conducted in June.

--With assistance from Shawn Donnan and Gerson Freitas Jr..

To contact the reporter on this story: Daniel Flatley in Washington at dflatley1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Anna Edgerton

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