By Ricardo Luiz
Companies in the United States are spending sharply more on lobbyists in Washington to win exceptions from President Donald Trump's tariffs, according to a new report by the group Advancing American Freedom. The report covers the third quarter of 2026 and was highlighted by Brazil's conservative site Visão da Direita on November 14.
The race for tariff exemptions
According to the survey, lobbying disclosures that mention tariffs rose 239% in the third quarter of 2026 compared with the same period of 2024. The total amount declared in those filings jumped 337%, although the figure may include topics beyond tariffs.
The increase is broad. Fourteen organizations spent more than US$ 1 million on lobbying in the third quarter, versus only two in the same period of 2024. Another 105 spent more than US$ 100,000, up from 26 two years earlier.
The report's author, Rachel Greszler, says companies are paying lobbyists to ask for exemptions instead of putting that money into growth, hiring or higher wages. In her view, constantly shifting tariffs are raising the cost of living, threatening jobs and squeezing workers' budgets.
Prices and jobs
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that tariffs raised prices by 2.9 percentage points on the consumer goods it analyzed, both imported and made in the United States. Small businesses that cannot afford lobbyists to secure exceptions risk cutting operations or closing, the report warns.
The group's own analysis, which is tied to former Vice President Mike Pence, estimates that tariffs resulted in about 75,000 fewer manufacturing jobs in the first year. The number could grow to as many as 1 million fewer jobs nationwide compared with what pre-tariff trends would have predicted. Manufacturing, the central target of the policy, was among the hardest-hit sectors.
Canada is also part of the picture. According to the group, U.S. trade with Canada fell by US$ 50 billion, or 6.5%, before the most recent round of tariffs under Section 338 took effect. Over the same period, imports from other countries rose without a corresponding increase in American production.
What the White House says
Trump defends tariffs as the centerpiece of his trade agenda. The administration argues they will strengthen American industry and bring jobs and investment back to the country. The White House maintains that, in the end, foreign exporters pay the bill.
The question now facing companies and investors is direct: keep paying lobbyists and planning around tariffs, or hold back investment, hiring and expansion until the rules become clear.
Why it matters
Tariffs are the core of Trump's economic policy, and Washington's trade decisions affect partners worldwide, including Brazil. The report adds hard numbers to a debate over who actually bears the cost of tariffs: consumers, small businesses, or foreign exporters, as the White House claims.
VDD Analysis
The report offers a data point that should worry any defender of the market economy: when companies' main effort becomes winning exemptions in Brasília or Washington, the free market loses ground to favoritism. Trump is betting on reindustrialization, and that goal is legitimate. But the numbers presented show that the bill for unstable tariffs falls on consumers and small business owners, who lack the structure to negotiate with the government.
