Brazilian President Slams Trump's Proposed Strait of Hormuz Tariff as 'Piracy'

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Monday criticised a proposal by United States President Donald Trump to take control of the Strait of Hormuz and impose a 20 per cent transit tariff, calling the plan ‘piracy’. Lula made the remarks during a visit to a laboratory facility at the Maua Institute of Technology in Sao Paulo State. The comments were a response to Trump’s earlier social media posts and television interviews, in which the US leader claimed his country would act as the strait’s guardian and demanded an additional 20 per cent cargo levy for security reasons. ‘In the past, that act was called piracy,’ Lula said, stating that the US, as a country that has long fought piracy, should not turn into a pirate nation. The Brazilian president described the maritime transit fee initiative as undemocratic and uncivilised, adding that it is ‘unnatural for any party to exploit a tragedy to reap profits at the expense of others’. Lula strongly criticised the broader economic impact of US-driven conflicts on uninvolved countries, emphasising how global tensions trigger spikes in local commodity prices. ‘The price of this warfare has trickled down to our beans, rice, and tomatoes,’ Lula said.