Brazil gets slapped with a whopping 50% effective tariff starting Wednesday, a move that will drive up the price of coffee, beef and fruit.

Maryland imports about $1.1 billion each year from the South American country, according to data from USA Trade Online. A majority of those goods are sugar and confectionery products, fruit and tree nuts, certain metals, and agriculture, construction and mining machinery, a data analysis by The Baltimore Banner found.

The U.S. is Brazil’s second-largest trade partner, but it’s the 10th-largest importer for Maryland, trailing Germany, Mexico and Japan.

“We [the Port of Baltimore] have one regular weekly service from Brazil into our public terminals, and we have a few other services monthly,” said Richard Scher, spokesperson for the port, in an email. “Our top imports from Brazil are alumina, wood pulp (used to produce paper towels, facial tissue, napkins), and sugar, while our top exports to Brazil are coal, scrap paper, and farm and construction machinery.”

Maryland imports more than $480 million in sugar and confectionery products from around the world, and more than 27% of that, or $133 million, comes from Brazil.

Domino Sugar, owned by the New York-based American Sugar Refinery Group, did not respond to requests for comment. But ships from Brazil have been spotted at its Baltimore refinery dropping off tons of sugar cane.

President Donald Trump announced the Brazil-specific tariff in an executive order last week, an extension of the administration’s previous 10% tariff on nearly every country, including Brazil.

“As of now, we have not seen large impacts due to the tariffs, but we continue to closely monitor the situation as it continues to evolve,” Scher said.

Trump is hitting South America’s largest exporter with an additional 40% on certain products, bringing levies to 50%. That’s one of the highest rates yet.

The increase goes into effect Wednesday, but exceptions are made for goods in transit before that date and available for consumption before Oct. 5.

Some products are exempt from these tariffs, like orange juice, iron, coal and fuel oil. But nearly 83% of leather and hide tanning; 44% of yarn, fabrics and threads; and 38% of electrical equipment that came through Maryland from Brazil last year won’t be exempt.

By Brazil, a popular store and cafe for Brazilian products and food in Montgomery County’s Wheaton, has been preparing for the increased tariff for weeks. By Brazil posted on social media on July 14 that it won’t raise prices or reduce staff.

“We hope there will be a dialogue and a revision of this tariff,” the post says.

International politics plays a central role in Trump’s decision to target trade with Brazil.

Trump pointed to the ongoing trial against former president of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro in the executive order issued July 30.

Bolsonaro, a far-right politician, is charged with allegedly attempting to overturn Brazil’s 2022 election by staging a coup, including an alleged plot to assassinate or arrest then-President-elect Lula da Silva, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, among other crimes.

On Jan. 8, 2023, Bolsonaro’s loss instigated a riot, and thousands of his supporters stormed government buildings in the country’s capital, similar to the Jan. 6 riots in Washington, D.C., in 2021.

Bolsonaro is barred from running for president again until 2030 after he made unfounded claims about Brazil’s voting system in 2022. Trump called Bolsonaro’s trial is a “political persecution” and the treatment of his supporters “human rights abuses.”

Banner reporter Sapna Bansil contributed to this story.