A new meeting is scheduled for this Thursday between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira, and the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio in Washington. The conversation should continue the dialogue that began today, when the two ministers met briefly — for about five minutes — to discuss negotiations surrounding the tariffs imposed by the United States on Brazilian products.
According to interlocutors from the Brazilian government, the previous meeting served to keep the political channel open between Brasília and Washington and reaffirm the willingness of both sides to seek a negotiated solution. The quick meeting between Vieira and Rubio took place on the sidelines of a G7 ministerial meeting, to which Brazil was invited.
The Brazilian government is trying to convince the United States to temporarily suspend tariffs and sanctions applied against Brazilian citizens while trade negotiations are ongoing.
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The so-called tariff, announced in July and in force since August, added a 50% surcharge on Brazilian products such as coffee, meat, fruit, fish, orange juice and industrial machinery. Washington’s justification was political: the American government stated that the measures respond to the “judicial persecution” against former president Jair Bolsonaro, with Minister Alexandre de Moraes, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), as the main target of the sanctions.
Brazil argues that the measures are unjustified and that the United States maintains a significant surplus in bilateral trade, even after the adoption of the surcharges. Furthermore, the Brazilian government is trying to avoid new punishments related to the investigation opened under Section 301 of the American Trade Law — an instrument that allows unilateral sanctions against countries accused of unfair practices. In the case of Brazil, the investigation involves topics such as digital commerce, intellectual property, financial services and the use of Pix as an instant payment method.
Although the negotiations have not yet progressed concretely, interlocutors in Brasília consider that the brief dialogue between Vieira and Rubio was an important symbolic step, after months of tension. The gesture reinforces what diplomats describe as a “careful restart” in relations with Washington, two weeks after the meeting between presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Donald Trump, in Malaysia.
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