President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Brazil is open to trade talks with Donald Trump but only if his country is treated as an equal to the US, reiterating that he won’t bow to political pressure from the US president.
“We want to negotiate. We want to negotiate on equal terms,” Lula said Sunday at an event for his leftist Workers’ Party in Brasilia. “We will support our companies, defend our workers, and say, ‘Look, when you’re ready to negotiate, our proposals are on the table.’”
In July, Trump thrust Brazil into the center of his global trade war, threatening to impose 50% tariffs on its goods unless the Supreme Court immediately dropped a case against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial on charges that he attempted a coup following his 2022 election loss.
The US last week delayed the tariff hike, which had been set to take effect Aug. 1, while exempting numerous products from higher levies. But it also placed sanctions on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing Bolsonaro’s legal cases and has clashed with US social media companies.
Trump said Friday that Lula can call him, remarks that Brazil Finance Minister Fernando Haddad welcomed as a step forward. Haddad said he is set to speak to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about tariffs and the sanctions against Moraes soon.
Even as he signaled openness to talks, the leftist leader maintained his defiant tone toward the US, saying it was “unacceptable” to “try to use a political issue to impose economic sanctions on us” and repeating his assertion that Trump is attempting to upend global multilateralism.
Lula also said he won’t give up on efforts to develop alternatives to the dollar in foreign trade — another issue that has irked Trump even as the BRICS bloc of emerging market nations, of which Brazil is a part, has made little progress on it.
“Brazil today is not as dependent on the United States as it once was,” he said. “I won’t disregard the importance of our diplomatic relationship with the US. But from now on, they need to know that we have things to negotiate. We have size, we have a stance, we have economic and political interests to bring to the table.”
Lula’s remarks came as Bolsonaro supporters staged marches in major cities against the government and Moraes, whom the former president has accused of politically persecuting him and his right-wing allies.
Crowds gathered on major streets in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and other cities, with an additional march set to take place on Sao Paulo’s main avenue in the afternoon.
Bolsonaro is not participating in the marches due to restrictions Moraes placed on him last month that forbid the right-wing former leader from leaving his home at nights and on weekends.
