\n<\/p>\n
Brazil\u2019s president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, has said he does not fear getting on the wrong side of Donald Trump, as South America\u2019s largest economy braces for the introduction of 50% tariffs on Friday.<\/p>\n
Trump announced plans to slap Brazil with tariffs on 1 August earlier this month, partly in retaliation for a supposed political \u201cwitch-hunt\u201d against his far-right ally Jair Bolsonaro. The former Brazilian president faces decades in jail for allegedly plotting a military coup to stop Lula from taking office after the former lost the 2022 presidential election.<\/p>\n
In a rare interview with the New York Times, clearly designed to send a message to the White House on the eve of a potential trade war, Lula urged the US president to avoid creating a \u201close-lose\u201d relationship between two of the largest economies in the Americas and said he did not fear publicly criticizing Trump, whom he recently called an \u201cemperor\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no reason to be afraid. I am worried, obviously, because we have economic interests, political interests, technological interests. But at no point will Brazil negotiate as if it were a small country up against a big country. Brazil will negotiate as a sovereign country,\u201d said Lula, who has enjoyed a bounce in the polls after Trump\u2019s threat.<\/p>\n
Lula indicated his officials were willing to negotiate economic issues with the US: \u201cIn politics between two states, the will of neither should prevail. We always need to find the middle ground. This is achieved not by puffing out your chest and shouting about things you can\u2019t deliver, nor by bowing your head and simply saying \u2018amen\u2019 to whatever the United States wants.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Brazil\u2019s president indicated that the political future of Bolsonaro \u2013 whose plot allegedly included plans to assassinate Lula \u2013 was a judicial matter and therefore non-negotiable. \u201cBrazil has a constitution, and the former president is being tried with a full right to a defense,\u201d Lula insisted.<\/p>\n
The 79-year-old leftist said his message for Trump was \u201cthat Brazilians and Americans do not deserve to be victims of politics, if the reason President Trump is imposing this tax on Brazil is because of the case against former President Bolsonaro\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s decision to cite Bolsonaro\u2019s plight as one of the main justifications for his move against Brazil has left many observers doubting that the \u201cTrump always chickens out\u201d (Taco) maxim will apply to the Friday deadline facing Lula\u2019s government. The US president has likened Bolsonaro\u2019s \u201cdisgraceful\u201d treatment to attempts to prosecute him after he unsuccessfully tried to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election. Bolsonaro has denied plotting a coup but has admitted seeking \u201calternative ways\u201d of stopping Lula from taking power.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d be very surprised if Trump pulled back in this case, not just because of his friendship with the Bolsonaro family \u2026 but above all because in Trump\u2019s mind it reflects his own trauma,\u201d the American Brazil specialist Brian Winter told the Estado de S\u00e3o Paulo newspaper this week.<\/p>\n
Lula hinted he believed a retreat might be possible, comparing the current situation to unfounded fears over the millennium bug.<\/em> \u201cDo you remember when we were about to turn from 1999 to 2000, and there was worldwide panic that the computer systems were going to crash? Nothing happened,\u201d said Lula, although he admitted he could not be certain \u201cnothing will happen\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Brazil\u2019s president, Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva, has said he does not fear getting on the wrong side of Donald Trump, as South America\u2019s largest economy braces for the introduction of 50% tariffs on Friday. Trump announced plans to slap Brazil with tariffs on 1 August earlier this month, partly in retaliation for a supposed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[3160,2590,102,6823,1059,3832,72,773,430,81],"class_list":{"0":"post-13128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-brazils","10":"tag-hits","11":"tag-lula","12":"tag-president","13":"tag-showdown","14":"tag-tariffs","15":"tag-threaten","16":"tag-trade","17":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}