The Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Da Silva has said that, if the United States imposes tariffs on his country, he will respond in kind.
Speaking at a press conference in the capital of Brasilia, on Thursday, Lula said that his country seeks a relationship based on mutual respect. His comments occurred in response to the threat of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, of high tariffs.
“It is very simple: if the Brazilian products tax, there will be reciprocity,” Lula told journalists.
“Trump was chosen to direct the United States, and I was chosen to direct Brazil. I will respect the United States and I want Trump to respect Brazil. That's all.”
Comments are the last sign that Trump's efforts can cause a commercial war with Americans.
Lula's position also offers a model on how other Latin American countries could respond to Trump's protectionist policies. Trump has promoted tariffs as a mechanism to boost the national industry, as well as to force international rivals to access demands ranging from manufacturing to migration.
Earlier this week, Trump threatened large tariffs against Colombia when President Gustavo Petro initially refused to allow an American military flight with undocumented immigrants to land.
Petro opposed the American treatment of immigrants, some of whom were handcuffed.
After the two leaders exchanged tariff threats, Petro retreated, allowing future flights to continue, despite implying a comparison between Trump and “white slaves.”
But Trump has proceeded to hang the possibility of tariffs against other countries from the diplomatic dispute.
On Thursday, for example, he told reporters that he planned to fulfill a promise to impose 25 percent tariffs on the neighboring countries of Canada and Mexico, two of the largest commercial partners in the United States.
“We don't need the products they have,” Trump said.
Trump has indicated that the rates would encourage Mexico and Canada to tighten their border security and stop the flow of drugs, migrants and asylum seekers. In the past, Trump has also threatened to carry out military attacks within Mexico to deal with the posters that draw drugs that move the fentanyl along the border.
Experts link the growing shadow of tariffs with Trump's declared desire to follow a “America First” foreign policy, putting the interests of the United States above all.
His comments on his second inauguration on January 20 emphasized that platform. Not only caused imminent tariffs “to enrich our citizens,” but also established an expansionist vision for the future of the United States, even through the seizure of the Panama Canal.
Those threats, however, have not been well received in Latin America, where a long history of interventions and entrometries of the United States remains resonant.
“I have governed Brazil while the United States had Republican and Democratic Presidents, and our relationship has always been between two sovereign countries,” said Lula, who began his third unseee -consecutive mandate in the position in 2023 after defeating Trump Jair's ally Bolsonaro
The United States has a commercial deficit with Brazil, from which it buys products such as coffee, oil, steel, airplanes and orange juice.
Brazil, meanwhile, largely buys US goods such as energy products, pharmaceutical goods and aircraft parts. According to the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Trade, the country exported $ 337 billion in goods to the US. In 2024 and imported $ 262.5 billion.
But experts say that commercial deficits are not necessarily a sign of an unhealthy economic relationship: they are affected by factors such as consumer demand and monetary values.
It is also feared that a commercial war established in the United States can empower other economic rivals to intervene.
China, for example, has expanded its economic ties with South America in recent years, becoming the main commercial partner for most countries in the region.
