Brazil formally requested consultations at the World Trade Organization after a 50% tariff on most of its exports to the United States took effect on 6 August. The government says the duties—imposed by President Donald Trump and denounced as unilateral—hit roughly 36% of Brazilian shipments to the U.S. In an exclusive Reuters interview, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ruled out reciprocal tariffs and said there is no point in calling Trump, which he described as a potential “humiliation.” Instead, Brasília will roll out fiscal support for affected companies while keeping cabinet-level channels open for any future dialogue. Lula added that he will telephone India’s Narendra Modi and China’s Xi Jinping to seek a coordinated BRICS response, underscoring Brazil’s current presidency of the bloc. India was slapped the same day with an additional 25-percentage-point levy, lifting U.S. duties on its goods to 50%. The immediate pain is being felt in export-oriented sectors such as seafood. Brazil’s fishing industry, which sends about $400 million of product a year—70% of its foreign sales—to the U.S., is asking for a 900 million-reais ($165 million) credit line to avoid layoffs. Lula also signalled a forthcoming policy that designates strategic minerals as issues of national sovereignty to spur more domestic processing.