The White House concluded that non-tariff methods for punishing Brazil would take too long, two people familiar with the situation said.

Faced with threats of 50 percent tariffs and demands to end a criminal case, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he wouldn’t take orders from President Trump.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to impose his threatened 50% tariffs on Brazil, setting a legal rationale that Brazil’s policies and criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro constitute an economic emergency under a 1977 law.