President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said he is confident in the possibility of reaching an agreement to resolve the tariff crisis with the United States, but acknowledged that this will not happen at the meeting he is scheduled to have with Donald Trump at the weekend.
“If I didn’t believe it was possible to reach an agreement, I wouldn’t participate in the meeting. Although the agreement certainly won’t be done tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It will be done by the negotiators who will have to sit down together with the American government staff to negotiate,” said Lula.
The president also did not want to risk a possible date for negotiations to be concluded. “I wanted it to be yesterday, but if it’s tomorrow, that’s fine,” he said.
Still regarding the negotiations, Lula said that three of his ministers are already involved in negotiations with the United States: Vice President Geraldo Alckmin (also Minister of Industry and Commerce), Fernando Haddad (Finance) and Mauro Vieira (Foreign Affairs).
Possible themes
Lula said that all topics could be discussed at the meeting, citing, for example, the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and also the possibility of exploration of rare earths by both countries.
“Brazil is interested in putting the truth back on the table, showing that the United States is not in deficit (in trade with Brazil), therefore there is no explanation for the taxation imposed on Brazil. There is also no explanation for the punishment of our ministers, Brazilian public figures, because they did not make any mistakes, they are complying with the Constitution of my country”, said Lula.
“If President Trump wants to discuss any other topic, Russia, Venezuela, you know, I’m open to discussing any topic. What’s important is this: we don’t have a veto on any topic. Any topic that is put on the table, we will discuss it,” he said.
The president made the statements at the end of his state visit to Indonesia, in the early hours of Friday (24).
Lula’s agenda
From Jakarta, Lula embarked for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where he will participate in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) summit during the weekend.
The meeting with Trump should take place on Sunday afternoon (26), on the sidelines of the Asian summit. The meeting has not yet been confirmed by Palácio do Planalto or by , but Lula answered questions about the matter as if everything was confirmed.
There is space on Trump’s schedule for a bilateral meeting “to be announced” on Sunday afternoon. The Brazilian government has been extremely careful regarding the issue and should only confirm the meeting after the White House.
