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Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said that if the United States imposes a tariff on his country, he will respond somewhat.
Speaking at a press conference in Capital, Brazilia, on Thursday, Lula said that his country was seeking a relationship based on mutual respect. His comments came in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat to the increasing tariffs.
Lola told reporters: “It is very simple: If he imposes taxes on Brazilian products, there will be the reciprocity.”
“Trump has been elected to the United States administration, and I am elected to run Brazil. I will respect the United States and want Trump to respect Brazil. That’s it.”
Comments are the latest indication that Trump’s efforts may raise a trade war with US allies.
Lula’s position also provides a model of how other Latin American countries respond to Trump’s protectionist policies. Trump has described the customs tariff as a mechanism for strengthening the local industry, as well as forcing international competitors to join the demands ranging from manufacturing to immigration.
Earlier this week, Trump threatened the major tariffs against Colombia when President Gustavo Petro initially refused to allow an American military trip carrying illegal immigrants to land.
Petro objected to the American treatment of migrants, according to the hands of the hands.
After the two leaders exchanged the threats of customs tariffs, Petro retreated, which allowed future trips to continue, despite the implicit comparison Between Trump and “white slaves”.
But Trump began to interfere in the possibility of definitions against other countries since the diplomatic dispute.
On Thursday, for example, the reporters told that he intends to fulfill a promise to impose a 25 percent tariff fees on the neighboring countries in Canada and Mexico, one of the largest trade partners in the United States.
“We don’t need the products they have,” Trump said.
Trump indicated that the customs tariff will motivate Mexico and Canada to tighten border security and collapse in the flow of medicines, migrants and asylum seekers. In the past, Trump has also threatened to carry out military strikes inside Mexico to deal with the drugs that follow the drug that moves fentanel over the border.
Experts link the rising shadow of the customs tariff with Trump’s desire to pursue foreign policy “America first”, which puts our interests above all.
His remarks confirmed in his second opening on January 20 that platform. Not only did the imminent definitions “to enrich our citizens”, but also put an expansionary vision of the future of the United States, including by seizing the Panama Channel.
However, these threats were not well received in Latin America, where the long history of American interventions and intervention remains resonance.
“Brazil ruled while the United States had Republicans and Democrats, and our relationship between the two sovereign countries has always been,” said Lula, who started his third -year term in his post in 2023 after the defeat of Trump’s ally Gere Bolsonaro.
The United States suffers from a trade deficit with Brazil, from which it buys products such as coffee, oil, steel, aircraft and orange juice.
Meanwhile, Brazil largely buys American goods such as energy products, pharmaceutical goods and aircraft spare parts. According to Brazil Foreign Trade SecretariatThe country exported $ 337 billion of goods to the United States in 2024, and imported 262.5 billion dollars.
But experts say that the trade deficit is not necessarily a sign of an unhealthy economic relationship: it is affected by factors such as demand for consumer and currency values.
There are also fears that the trade war that has caused in the United States can enable other economic competitors to intervene.
China, for example, has expanded its economic relations with South America in recent years, becoming the main commercial partner for most countries in the region.
