The minister of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations, Gleisi Hoffmann, said on Tuesday (29) that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will only seek a conversation with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, when there is openness for it.
Gleisi stressed that Trump “said he doesn’t want to talk now” and that the conversation between two heads of state “is not a telemarketing as it requires prior preparation.
“President Trump said he doesn’t want to talk now, so President Lula is no use looking for the conversation. A negotiation between two heads of state has a preparation for negotiators to make it happen, it is not a telemarketing,” said the minister when asked if Lula should seek to negotiate the tariff with Trump.
According to the minister, Lula “has never been unwell” to talk, but expects the United States to open this type of dialogue. “Lula has never been unwilling to talk, but obviously it will only happen when the US will also offer us opening for this conversation and commercial negotiation we want to do,” he said.
The minister again said that Brazil has no “country hegemony for our sales” and that the country has “a very large market in the world”.
She also said she talked “quickly” with the presidents of the House of Representatives, Hugo Motta (Republicans-PB), and Senate, David Alcolumbre (Brazil-AP Union), about the threats of sanctions from which they could be targeted by the US government. “I talked quickly over the phone. They are not here in Brasilia, they will arrive more at the end of the week. We agreed to meet,” said the minister.
