Lula Hits Back on U.S. Tariff Threat

Sept. 19—In a Sept. 14 New York Times essay, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva responds to the U.S. Trump administration’s 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods, urging dialogue, while firmly defending Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty. Lula acknowledges the legitimacy of U.S. goals like reindustrialization, but calls the tariffs “misguided” and economically baseless, noting that “nearly 75% of U.S. exports to Brazil enter duty-free” and that the U.S. has a $410 billion trade surplus with Brazil over 15 years.

It is no secret that the tariffs are, at least in large part, a politically motivated response to the trial and conviction of the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro by the Brazilian Supreme Court for his January 2023 coup attempt. This was not a “witch hunt,” Lula said. “The judgment was the result of proceedings carried out in accordance with Brazil’s 1988 Constitution, enacted after two decades of struggle against a military dictatorship. It followed months of investigations that uncovered plans to assassinate me, the vice president and a Supreme Court justice. Authorities also discovered a draft decree that would have effectively annulled the 2022 election results.”

Lula also rejected U.S. claims of Brazil prejudicing U.S. tech companies and digital companies operating in Brazil. “All digital platforms, whether domestic or foreign, are subject to the same laws in Brazil,” he writes. “It is dishonest to call regulation censorship, especially when what is at stake is the protection of our families against fraud, disinformation and hate speech. The internet cannot be a land of lawlessness where pedophiles and abusers are given free rein to prey on our children and teenagers.”

He calls for multilateral solutions rather than unilateral demands and invokes the 200-year U.S.-Brazil relationship, quoting Trump’s 2017 UN speech: “Strong sovereign nations … work side by side on the basis of mutual respect.” Lula says he is open to negotiations but insists that “Brazil’s democracy and sovereignty are not on the table.”