Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday criticized US President Donald Trump’s proposal to impose a 20 percent tariff on commercial ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz, mocking Washington as a “pirate” nation.His statements came after Trump announced that the United States would reimpose what he called the “Iranian blockade” and begin imposing fees on ships in exchange for securing one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.Speaking during a public event in Sao Paulo state, Lula mocked Trump’s proposal to collect payments from commercial ships using the strategic waterway, according to Agence France-Presse.“President Trump tweeted that he will open the Strait of Hormuz.
But for each ship, the oil owner must pay him 20 percent. “This would have been considered piracy,” Lula said. “A major country like the United States cannot become a piracy now,” he added.
Trump announces Hormuz tariffs
This comes after Trump said the US would become the “guardian of the Strait of Hormuz” and would begin imposing a proposed 20 percent compensation on goods transported through the Strait of Hormuz, a move that could amount to nearly $30 million for a fully loaded VLCC, Bloomberg reported.
This announcement came after renewed US military operations against Iran.“The Strait of Hormuz is open, and will remain open, with or without Iran. We are reimposing the Iranian blockade,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.This policy represents a major shift from the position previously expressed by the US administration. On June 23, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that international law does not allow any country to impose fees on ships using the Strait of Hormuz.“No country is allowed to impose fees or charges on the international waterway,” Rubio said. “This is current international law.”Following Trump’s latest announcement, the UN’s International Maritime Organization also said there was “no legal basis” to impose mandatory transit fees on ships using international straits.‘Iran has always been the guardian of the Strait and will remain so forever’Earlier, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi also mocked Trump’s proposal, saying that it is Iran – not the United States – that always protects the strategic waterway.In a post on the websiteThe 80-year-old Brazilian leftist is seeking to win a fourth term in the presidential elections scheduled for next October. His government took temporary measures to mitigate the impact of rising fuel prices after the Iranian conflict led to a sharp increase in global oil prices.Lula also linked the recent Gulf tensions to rising prices in Brazil, saying that rising oil costs are pushing up the prices of fuel and basic foodstuffs such as beans, rice, tomatoes and onions.“A major country like the United States, which I believe has fought piracy for a long time, cannot now become piracy,” he said, according to Agence France-Presse, warning that the conflict had led to a rise in the prices of basic foodstuffs in Brazil, including beans, rice, tomatoes, and onions, as well as fuel.