BELEM, Brazil (AP) — Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said on Tuesday he will personally call Donald Trump if negotiations on U.S tariffs do not make progress in the near future.
The U.S. government has increased tariffs on many Brazilian goods by more than 50%, 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 in 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 in the heart of the Amazon.
“When COP30 ends, if a meeting between my negotiators and his is not yet scheduled, I’ll call Trump again,” said the Brazilian leader, 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% tariffs on Brazil. Trump has linked the tariffs to the country’s policies and criminal prosecution of former President Jair Bolsonaro. The U.S. ran a $6.8 billion trade surplus last year with Brazil, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
“Brazil and the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 meeting in Colombia next week of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, a body 33 of members, at which U.S. military action in the region will be in discussed. Some members of European Union will also attend.
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 authorized the CIA to conduct covert actions inside Venezuela, and the U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. President George W. Bush, who took part in discussions to pacify Venezuela after a coup attempt against then Venezuela President Hugo Chávez in 2002.
“At that time I suggested we created a group of friends of Venezuela. I put the U.S. there, I put Spain,” Lula said. “It was not a group of friends of Chávez. We eventually reached a deal.”
By MAURICIO SAVARESE
Associated Press
