Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Tuesday (local time) rejected US President Donald Trump's offer to "call him anytime" to discuss tariffs, and said he would instead prefer to call India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's Xi Jinping.
However, Lula refused to call his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin because he "cannot travel right now".
"I am not going to call Trump to negotiate anything, because he doesn’t want to talk," Lula said during an event in Brasilia. "But rest assured, Marina, I will call Trump to invite him to the COP, because I want to know what he thinks about the climate issue. I will have the courtesy to call, I will call him, I will call Xi Jinping, I will call Prime Minister Modi, I will call."
India, China, Russia and Brazil, along with South Africa, are members of the BRCIS, an alliance which the United States (US) has repeatedly claimed is working against the interests of Washington and has threatened with tariffs.
Trump offers Lula to call him anytime
Last week, Trump had said that Lula can call him "anytime" to discuss tariffs and other frictions between the two countries. "He can talk to me anytime he wants," Trump had said, while speaking to reporters outside the White House.
Later, Brazil's finance minister Fernando Haddad welcomed the US President's remarks and said that Lula also "feels the same".
Trump imposes 50% tariffs on Brazil
Tensions between the US and Brazil escalated after Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on Brazilian products. Trump's move this time is overtly political, targeting the Brazilian Supreme Court trial of former president Jair Bolsonaro, an ally of his who was charged for his alleged role in trying to overturn his 2022 election loss.
The court's prosecution of US-based social media companies failing to comply with local laws was also mentioned by Trump in a public letter as a reason to hike Brazil's trade tariffs. The US Census Bureau said the country had a USD 6.8 billion trade surplus with Brazil last year.
Brazilian exporters, bodies that represent them and politicians — many of whom are friendly with Bolsonaro — have poured criticism on Trump and urged Lula to negotiate, with coffee, beef and orange juice associations rallying to the nation's defence.
(With inputs from AP)
