While the government of Javier Milei looking forward to an official announcement USA about a trade agreement, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvareported that Brazil and the main power in the world will hold a bilateral meeting this Thursday in which they will address the negotiations on the additional tariffs that Washington imposed on Brazilian products within the framework of the “Liberation Day”. The meeting will be led by the foreign ministers of both countries. The PT and Donald Trump, at ideological opposites, resume dialogue despite differences.
The visit of the head of diplomacy of Brazil, Mauro Vieira, American lands will be the first formal meeting between authorities from both countries since the virtual conversation that Lula da Silva kept with trump at the beginning of the month. “Tomorrow (Thursday) we will have the negotiation conversation,” said the Brazilian head of state during an event in Rio de Janeiro.
In this context, Lula stated that in the call with his American counterpart “chemistry did not emerge, a petrochemical industry emerged”. The phrase refers to Trump’s statement about “the excellent chemistry” between the two, after a brief meeting in the hallways of the United Nations General Assembly last September.
After that initial contact, trump appointed the secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to continue negotiations with Brazil. Rubio invited Vieira to lead the Brazilian delegation, which arrived in Washington the day before to participate in bilateral discussions, where they are expected to address tariff discussions.
Brazil’s arguments to defend the US tariff reduction
The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, He announced that Brazil presented its best economic arguments to try to reverse the so-called “tarifazo” imposed by the US that not only affected the South American giant but also a good part of the countries of the world, within the framework of Trump’s trade policy through which he seeks to reverse the trade deficit and combat the growth of China.
Haddad recalled that the United States maintains a trade surplus with Brazil, and highlighted the investment opportunities that the South American country offers, especially in sectors linked to ecological transition, critical minerals, rare earths and clean energy such as wind and solar.
He “high rate” It is part of the new commercial policy of the White House, promoted by the president Trump, which seeks to increase profits against various trading partners in an attempt to reverse the loss of competitiveness of the US economy compared to other nations.
In the Brazilian case, on August 6, a 50 percent tariff came into force on almost 4,000 Brazilian products. Trump justified the measure by pointing out that large American technology companies were being harmed and in protest of what was demonstrated by a “hunt” against former President Jair Bolsonaro, finally sentenced to more than 27 years in prison for leading an attempted coup d’état after losing the 2022 elections.
Javier Milei anticipated that the agreement with the US will include “commercial advantages” for Argentina
Almost parallel to the meeting between USA and Brazil, the Argentine president Javier Milei He visited Washington this Tuesday in search of financial support and official confirmation from the White House about a trade agreement, which so far has not arrived but is expected to happen “soon,” according to Luis Caputo and the libertarian economist himself.
Despite the expectations raised in the previous weeks, the trip of the Argentine delegation to Washington ended without an announcement in this regard. Milei returned from the US with the certainty that the Argentine Foreign Ministry and its US counterpart will continue working to seal the understanding that will allow tariffs to be lowered.
Tonight, in conversation with A24, the president revealed that during the lunch that both delegations shared, they discussed commercial topics and anticipated that the country will have “advantages” in this matter. “There is agreements on trading positions. There is still no free trade agreement, It is the preliminary stage“he assured.
In turn, he once again clarified the North American president’s statements and assured: “There is no doubt that as long as I am president we have support“. “A very malicious interpretation was made, nothing that surprises me, that later the trump and expressed total and absolute support for me,” he noted. The clarification came after the US president stated that if the ruling party loses in the legislative elections on October 26, he would back down with the support: “If he (Javier Milei) loses to a far-left candidate, we will not be generous with Argentina”, he warned.
Source: Ambito
