PT also criticized countries’ protectionism and defended the Mercosur-EU agreement; statement was made during a visit to Portugal
The president (PT) said this Tuesday (April 21, 2026), in Lisbon, that the WTO (World Trade Organization) “it never worked again” after the election of the former president of the United States (Democratic Party), in 2008. The statement was made during a meeting with Portuguese businesspeople and authorities, after a meeting with the Prime Minister (PSD, right).
“I am a living witness that in 2008 we were almost about to conclude the agreement at the WTO, when, due to Obama’s elections, President Bush stopped negotiating. It happened that Obama won the elections and the WTO never worked again. That’s the fact”declared Lula.
The PT member defended multilateralism and criticized what he called the hypocrisy of rich countries in relation to free trade. According to him, the nations that preached trade openness in the 1980s became protectionists when developing countries became competitive.
“In the 80s the most fantastic thing was free trade, it was globalization. But when we started to like trade, those who became protectionists were those who wanted us in the 80s. [a abertura]. Because we became competitive and our products reached their market”these.
Regarding the Mercosur-EU agreement, the European Parliament’s decision to try to suspend the treaty in court. The text comes into force provisionally from May 1st.
The president stated that Brazil has no preference between China and the United States and wants to maintain relations with all trading partners.
“We are not in favor of the second cold war, we do not have a trade preference between China and the United States. We want to have a relationship with China, with the United States, with Russia, with everyone. No preference. What we want is multilateralism, harmony and a lot of peace so that we can negotiate”he declared.
LULA IN PORTUGAL
Lisbon is Lula’s last stop on his tour of Europe. Previously, he was in Barcelona (Spain) and Hannover (Germany). The PT member is still meeting this Tuesday (April 21) with the Portuguese president, (PS, left), before returning to Brazil.
Montenegro recalled that it is the first time that Lula has come to Portugal since taking over the Portuguese government 2 years ago. He spoke about the historical relationship between the countries and the collaboration in various areas, such as sustainability, environmental protection, protection of maritime space and trade.
Lula in April 2023 – he also landed in the European country on April 21st. At the time, it remained until April 25th. He met with the then president of the country, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, with António Costa, who was the prime minister and today holds the position of president of the European Council of the EU, and other authorities.
The decision to include Portugal on this trip was made, according to ambassador Roberto Abdalla, due to the historical nature of the relationship between the two nations and the large Brazilian community that lives in the European country.
O most recent of (Agency for Migration and Asylum Integration), with data from 2024, indicates that 484,596 Brazilian citizens live in Portugal – the largest foreign community. The number, however, is higher. This is because Brazilians who live in the country with citizenship of a European Union nation are not included.
According to Planalto, the Brazil-Portugal trade flow was US$4.55 billion in 2025. Brazilian exports reached US$3.3 billion, while imports totaled US$1.25 billion.
Topics such as immigration were also on the agenda of conversations. The Parliament of Portugalon April 1st, a new wording of the which tightens the rules for foreigners seeking citizenship – directly affecting thousands of Brazilians residing in the country.
Lula’s visit to Lisbon included demonstrations in favor, organized by the PT group in Lisbon, and against, coordinated by the right-wing Portuguese party Chega. Both acts were concentrated in the Belém Palace region, seat of the Presidency of Portugal.
Here is the delegation that accompanied Lula to Lisbon:
- Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mauro Vieira;
- Minister of Finance, Dario Durigan;
- Minister of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services, Márcio Elias Rosa;
- Minister of Mines and Energy, Alexandre Silveira;
- substitute Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Luis Manuel Fernandes;
- president of Fiocruz, Márcio Moreira.
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