Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called on BRICS partners to deliver a unified response to the sweeping 50 percent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, escalating tensions between Washington and Brasília.
Lula announced plans to begin consultations this Thursday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, followed by talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, in a bid to forge a coordinated stance. “I am going to discuss with them how each country is responding to the situation, what consequences it carries for each of them, so that we can make a joint decision,” Lula told Reuters. He stressed that BRICS states hold additional weight given that ten of its members are represented in the G20.
The Brazilian president did not mince words in his criticism of Trump’s trade policy, accusing him of undermining multilateralism. “What President Trump is doing is effectively undermining multilateralism. He wants to replace it with unilateral decisions,” Lula said.
Relations between the U.S. and Brazil, according to Lula, have reached their lowest point in two centuries, further strained by Trump’s linkage of tariff measures to Brazil halting legal proceedings against former President Jair Bolsonaro. Lula compared the move to past U.S. interference, noting: “We once forgave the US intervention in the 1964 coup. But this is no longer a minor intervention. This is the U.S. president thinking he can dictate terms to a sovereign state like Brazil. This is unacceptable.”
The standoff signals a looming test for BRICS unity, as Brazil, India, and China weigh the prospect of a collective pushback against Washington’s unilateral trade actions, potentially reshaping the dynamics of global economic governance.
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