Lula says open to US trade talks if Brazil treated as equal

Daniel Carvalho and Travis Waldron, Bloomberg News on Aug 3, 2025

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President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Brazil is open to trade talks with Donald Trump but only if his country is treated as an equal to the U.S., reiterating that he won’t bow to political pressure from the U.S. president.

“We want to negotiate. We want to negotiate on equal terms,” Lula said Sunday at an event for his leftist Workers’ Party in Brasilia. “We will support our companies, defend our workers, and say, ‘Look, when you’re ready to negotiate, our proposals are on the table.’”

In July, Trump thrust Brazil into the center of his global trade war, threatening to impose 50% tariffs on its goods unless the Supreme Court immediately dropped a case against former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is facing trial on charges that he attempted a coup following his 2022 election loss.

The U.S. last week delayed the tariff hike, which had been set to take effect Aug. 1, while exempting numerous products from higher levies. But it placed sanctions on Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who is overseeing Bolsonaro’s legal cases and has clashed with U.S. social media companies.

Trump said Friday that Lula can call him, which Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad welcomed as a step forward. Haddad said he is set to speak to U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about tariffs and the sanctions against Moraes soon.

Even as he signaled openness to talks, the leftist leader maintained his defiant tone toward the U.S., saying it was “unacceptable” to “try to use a political issue to impose economic sanctions on us” and repeating his assertion that Trump is attempting to upend global multilateralism.

Lula also said he won’t give up on efforts to develop alternatives to the dollar in foreign trade — another issue that has irked Trump even as the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, which includes Brazil, has made little progress.

“Brazil today is not as dependent on the United States as it once was,” he said. “I won’t disregard the importance of our diplomatic relationship with the U.S. But from now on, they need to know that we have things to negotiate. We have size, we have a stance, we have economic and political interests to bring to the table.”

Lula’s government has pushed to expand commerce with other markets, including China and Southeast Asia. China this week approved exports from 183 new Brazilian coffee companies, its embassy in Brazil said in a social media post Saturday.

Brazil is the world’s largest grower of coffee, which wasn’t among the products exempted from higher U.S. levies. The U.S. accounts for about 16% of Brazil’s coffee shipments.

Bolsonaro supporters staged marches Sunday against the government and Moraes, whom the former president has accused of politically persecuting him and his right-wing allies.

Crowds gathered on major streets in Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and other cities, calling for amnesty for those convicted of crimes related to the Jan. 8, 2023 riots, in which thousands of Bolsonaro supporters stormed government buildings.

Former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro appeared at a rally in Belem. In Rio, Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, one of the former leader’s sons, thanked the U.S. in his speech, the O Globo newspaper reported.

The march in Sao Paulo, the country’s biggest city, drew nearly 40,000 people, according to the University of Sao Paulo.

Bolsonaro isn’t participating due to restrictions Moraes placed on him last month that forbid the former president from leaving his home at nights and on weekends. Still, he briefly appeared via video calls during the rallies in Rio and other cities, O Globo reported.