Brazil will resort to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against said President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in an interview with ending his trip to Japan.
Lula was asked about US tariffs by Japanese journalists as US President Donald Trump announced including Japan. Brazil had exports of steel and aluminum also taxed by 25% since March 12, and new measures are expected to come.
“We have two decisions to make: one is to turn to the World Trade Organization (WTO), which we will appeal. And the other is that we can overchand the American products we import. It is putting into practice the law of reciprocity,” Lula said on Wednesday night in Tokyo-in an interview. “We can’t be quiet, thinking that only they are right and that only they can tax the other products.”
He had already been admitted by the vice president, Geraldo Alckmin, who leads the steel negotiations with the Americans, but there was not yet a decision made. This is the first time Lula confirms the intention to appeal.
The appeal to the WTO may have two results, normally: the target country of the action revisits its measures, or if it maintains them, the organization authorizes the country that filed the action to retaliate, which Brazil already admits to do.
The intention, for now, is to try to maintain negotiation between the two countries to try to resume the export quota policy used by this year, but so far there has been no advances, and the concern of the Brazilian government is that other tariffs may come. There is a fear that, in the announcement of new rates scheduled for the next day 2, more products enter this list, or that all Brazilian exports will be taxed, which has already been adventured by the White House.
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In the interview, Lula criticized US measures, pointed out that they can cause inflation in the United States market and impair world trade.
“I think President Trump, like the president of the United States, has the right to make decisions. What he needs is to measure the consequences of these decisions. What will be the effect of this decision? I, honestly, will be harmful to the United States. This will raise the price of things and can lead to inflation that he is not realizing,” he said.
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During the trip to Japan, Lula focused on opening new markets, with dialogue to resume negotiations from a trade agreement between the country and Mercosur, as well as in the defense of multilateralism and free trade – both subject to a joint statement of the two countries. He even pointed out that this will be the central theme of the BRICS meeting that Brazil hosts in July.
In the interview, he stressed the problems he sees in current protectionism.
“I think this taxation is very bad, because instead of facilitating trade in the world, we are making trade in the world difficult. And this protectionism doesn’t help any country in the world. It doesn’t help. Let’s see the consequences of it,” he said.
