Lula Condemns Trump’s Tariffs but Keeps Negotiation on the Table

Lula Condemns Trump’s Tariffs but Keeps Negotiation on the Table
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has cast US trade policy as a contest between negotiation and unilateral power, criticizing Donald Trump’s tariffs on Brazilian goods while stopping short of ruling out talks or reciprocal action.

In an interview in New York, Lula said Trump governs as though strength gives him the right to set the terms for everyone else: “I’m the strongest, I’m the most powerful, I’m the richest, I can do anything, and everyone else has to obey.” He called that approach “the law of the strongest.” Lula said the US tariff measures were based on false claims and that Brazil would seek a negotiated outcome, but added that officials must consider which US products could be included in a reciprocity list.

A separate account of the interview said the tariffs had lifted the average levy on Brazilian products to 17.7% and contributed to a 9% decline in exports to the US market. It framed Brasília’s response less as a head-on trade confrontation than as diversification: trade with 57 other countries rose by an average 10.5%, including increases with China, Japan and the European Union.

The two accounts converge on Lula’s broader objection to what he sees as US dominance. He also criticized the US operation in Venezuela that resulted in Nicolás Maduro’s capture, arguing that Venezuelan sovereignty had been erased and calling for new elections. The same report noted Lula’s participation in a multilateralism partnership with Canada, Kenya and the European Council, aimed at resisting a system in which one power can impose its economic or military weight.

That framing drew a skeptical response from conservative commentator Rodrigo Constantino, who asked, “Do you understand what Lula fears losing when he speaks of a threat to sovereignty?!” while sharing the assertion that Venezuela had lost its sovereignty. The contrast is sharp: Lula presents sovereignty as a defense against external coercion, while the critic uses his Venezuela remarks to challenge the political meaning of that claim.

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