The phone call between Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and US President Donald Trump on Friday morning (August 21) shows that the relationship between the two leaders remains unshaken despite the tariff tensions between the two countries. That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Estadão newspaper, for which the roughly 80-minute conversation — described as "friendly and cordial" by the Planalto Palace, Brazil's presidential office — and its immediate fallout indicate that the direct channel between the two men remains open.
During the call, Lula told Trump that the allegations used by Washington to justify the new tariffs on Brazilian products are "unfounded", according to G1. The barriers were imposed on the basis of investigations by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR). At a campaign event in Belo Horizonte over the weekend, Lula said Trump acknowledged the tariff hike was "incorrect" during the conversation and that, at the American's request, the US Commerce Secretary phoned Brazil's Development, Industry and Commerce minister, Marcio Elias Rosa, according to CNN Brasil.
The call produced a concrete result, confirmed by the minister himself to journalist Julia Duailibi's blog: US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer contacted Marcio Elias Rosa right after Friday's conversation to propose a meeting, and Brazil and the United States are set to resume technical negotiations on the tariff package this week.
Lula targets Trump's "second tier"
In an interview with TV Record on Sunday (23), Lula drew a line between his dialogue with Trump and the measures adopted by the US administration. The president said the conversations are always "civilized and very respectful," but that the Republican's subordinates act differently:
"My conversations with Trump are very civilized, very respectful, both on my part and on his. But then the second tier takes attitudes that are unthinkable. We cannot accept meddling by any country, whoever it may be, in Brazil's affairs."
Lula also said he has "the impression" that Trump "is much better in political relations than his advisers." The reading dovetails with a Financial Times report published on Saturday (22), which said Lula has begun betting on a direct channel with Trump to bypass an "ideological wing" of the White House led by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, with whom he has traded public barbs in recent weeks — Rubio accused Lula of putting "his own ego" ahead of the Brazilian people's interests, and Lula called the diplomat a "frustrated Latin American," CNN Brasil reported. An analysis by the network also concluded that "there is no animosity from Trump toward Lula."
The British newspaper heard conflicting accounts of the rapprochement: a US official said Lula was "fabricating" the feud with Rubio because he believes anti-American sentiment would help him defeat Flávio Bolsonaro in Brazil's October presidential election, while a Brazilian government official spoke of "a coordinated agenda between Brazil's right and the right inside the US State Department."
Commenting on the call, Lula cited the 203 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries and said he and Trump, "two 80-year-old men," must "set good examples for the rest of the world" as leaders of the hemisphere's two largest democracies. Despite the Planalto's optimism about the reopened channel, CNN reported that members of the government have not ruled out attempts at electoral interference by US sectors.