The US government has increased tariffs on many Brazilian goods by more than 50 per cent, but Lula and Trump discussed reaching a potential deal during a meeting in Malaysia in October
Donald Trump. Pic/AFP
Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday said he will personally call his US counterpart Donald Trump if negotiations on US tariffs do not make progress in the near future. The US government has increased tariffs on many Brazilian goods by more than 50 per cent, but Lula and Trump discussed reaching a potential deal during a meeting in Malaysia in October.
'I have his number, he has mine. I have no trouble calling him,' Lula told reporters ahead of the United Nations' climate summit known as COP. Its 30th edition starts this week in Belem, a Brazilian city on the edge of the Amazon.
'When COP30 ends, if a meeting between my negotiators and his is not yet scheduled, I'll call Trump again,' the Brazilian leader said, adding that his main negotiators, Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad, are keen for further talks.
'I won't have any issue in going to Washington, going to New York (to discuss tariffs) and I hope that he (Trump) has no problem in coming to Brazil,' Lula said. On July 30, Trump signed an executive order to impose 50 per cent tariffs on Brazil. Trump has linked the tariffs to the country's policies and criminal prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro.
The US ran a USD 6.8 billion trade surplus last year with Brazil, according to the US Census Bureau. 'Brazil and the US are the biggest democracies in the Western world. The more we respect each other, the more cordial we are with each other before the world, the best it will be for the US and for Brazil. That's how I do politics,' Lula said.
Bolsonaro was sentenced in September to 27 years and three months in jail for leading a coup attempt after his 2022 election defeat to Lula. The former president, who has been under house arrest since August, is now appealing to reduce his prison sentence. Separately, Lula urged Latin American states to help avoid a conflict in Venezuela as the Trump administration orders military action against vessels allegedly linked to drug cartels.
The veteran leader said he is considering attending a Community of Latin American and Caribbean States meeting in Colombia next week, where the 33-member body will discuss US military action in the region. Some members of the European Union will also be in attendance. Trump's military operations in the Caribbean have killed dozens of people who he accuses of being members of a drug cartel led by Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.
Last month, he authorised the CIA to conduct covert actions inside Venezuela, and the US government has doubled the bounty for the capture of Maduro, who denies the accusations, which he claims to be an excuse for American military action in the region. 'I told Trump that Latin America is a region of peace,' Lula said. 'I don't want us to reach the point of a US ground invasion of Venezuela."
He added: 'Police have every right to fight drug dealers...the Americans could be helping those countries instead of trying to shoot against them.' Lula said he also urged Trump to follow the example of former US president George W Bush, who took part in discussions to pacify Venezuela after a coup attempt against then Venezuela president Hugo Chavez in 2002.
'At that time I suggested we create a group of friends of Venezuela. I put the US there, I put Spain,' Lula said. 'It was not a group of friends of Chavez. We eventually reached a deal.' Lula also criticised Rio de Janeiro authorities after 121 people were killed in a massive police raid targeting a drug trafficking gang. The operation in two of the city's favelas sparked intense gunbattles on October 28. Lula described the police operation as 'disastrous' and demanded independent forensics to determine what happened in Rio.
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