Africa-Press – Cape verde. Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said this Thursday that there are diplomatic alternatives to responding to the 50% tariff imposed by the President of the United States against Brazil at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and reaffirmed that there will be reciprocity.
“First, from a diplomatic standpoint, there are several measures that can be taken, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take them. We can appeal to the World Trade Organization (WTO), we can open an investigation with other countries, demanding consistency from the United States,” Lula da Silva said in a video posted on the social network X, in which he is interviewed by a journalist from Record TV.
“What will matter most is this: we have the reciprocity law that was approved by the National Congress. There’s no doubt that, first, we will try to negotiate, but if there’s no negotiation, the reciprocity law will be implemented. If he [Trump] is going to charge 50% [in tariffs], we will charge him 50%,” he added.
Lula da Silva also stated that he thought Trump’s letter announcing the tariff on Brazilian products was apocryphal material. He added that if the US president knew Brazil “he would have more respect,” citing the South American country’s 201 years of diplomatic relations with the United States.
Trump announced on Wednesday an additional 50% tariff on imports from Brazil, effective August 1st.
The main reason for the sanction, according to the US leader, is “the way Brazil has treated former President Jair Bolsonaro,” who is being prosecuted in the Supreme Federal Court for an alleged coup attempt after losing the 2022 election to current Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In a letter sent to the Brazilian government, Trump also alleged that the trade relationship between the parties is “very unfair,” marked by imbalances generated by “tariff and non-tariff policies and by Brazil’s trade barriers.”
Lula da Silva argued that Trump “must respect Brazilian justice.”
“If what Trump did at the Capitol had been done here in Brazil, he would be prosecuted like Bolsonaro and risk being arrested because he violated democracy, because he violated the Constitution. I don’t interfere in the Judiciary, because here [in Brazil] the Judiciary is autonomous, especially the Supreme Federal Court,” the Brazilian President added.
However, since 2009, the United States has recorded a trade surplus with Brazil.
Data from the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade (MDIC) shows that, since 1997, when the historical series began, Brazil has purchased $50 billion (€42.8 billion) more than it has exported from the United States.
Lula da Silva reiterated that Trump cannot think that “he was elected to be the world’s sheriff; he was elected to be president of the United States. He can do whatever he wants within the United States. Here in Brazil, we Brazilians are in charge.”
The Brazilian president also stated that he intends to seek other partners to purchase the country’s products, and cited that trade with the United States represents only 1.7% of Brazil’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“It’s not that we can’t survive without the United States; it’s not like that. Obviously, we like to sell (…) but, you know, we won’t give up reciprocity. In the meantime, we’ll try to negotiate. A president’s term only lasts four years. Soon, who knows, there might be another president who wants to negotiate,” concluded Lula da Silva.
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