Barbs between Trump and Lula have noise, but will have little effect on the business relationship

The temperature of relations between the United States and Brazil United rose on Monday (7), with statements by presidents Donald Trump and Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. But experts and diplomats heard by Infomoney They said they did not believe that the change of barbs could bring new commercial damage to the country.

Trump made a defense of former President Jair Bolsonaro, expressed on his social network, exactly on the last day of the BRICS summit meeting. Hours earlier, he had threatened tariffs on the group of emerging countries by attitudes he classified as anti -American.

Regarding support to the former Brazilian president, who faces lawsuits in the Supreme Court FDERAL (STF), the positive signage was expected expected by Jair Bolsonaro’s allies since the beginning of the president’s second term.

Lula, in turn, replied not to consider a president of the republic the size of the United States to threaten the world over the internet. “This is not correct. The world has changed. We do not want emperor,” said the president after the closing conference of the summit held in Rio de Janeiro. Regarding new rates, Lula said, “If he thinks he can tax, countries also have the right to tax. There is the policy of reciprocity.”

• Also read: Lula reacts to Trump’s threat and says Brics “was not born to face anyone”

In the case of Trump’s opinion of lawsuits against Bolsonaro, Lula was more direct: “We are a sovereign country. We do not accept interference or protection of anyone. We have solid and independent institutions. No one is above the law. Above all, those who pay against freedom and the rule of law,” he wrote in a statement.

• Also read: After Trump defends Bolsonaro, Lula says that Brazil does not accept “external interference”

• Also read: STF Silence facing Trump’s attack and leaves institutional defense to Lula administration

From the point of view of diplomatic relations, however, the evaluation of experts is that Trump’s statements serve much more to keep it at the center of attention and generate noise among countries.

UNB Professor of International Relations, Antonio Jorge Ramalho, assesses that Trump’s statements “only bring harm to the Nations concert, especially to the United States themselves, whose credibility progressively erode due to the erratic and unstable behavior of his government.”

According to Ramalho, “Brazil, like other countries, will continue to negotiate with the US and continue to open to investments from US firms, but will tend to diversify partners, seeking to reduce the risk of depending on an unstable, less and less trustworthy commercial partner.”

For UNESP’s international relations teacher, Marcos Cordeiro Pires, has a detail in diplomacy, politics, which is at the level of speech. And there is something else that is at the technical level. “It has to see where the diplomats come in, the pressures of the Brazilian business, agribusiness, to know where this interest, which apparently no one discusses, is being resolved,” he says.

“These agreements are walking, so after tomorrow they should leave. Now, from a political point of view, neither Trump nor Lula have exchanged any conversation. Just as Chancellor Mauro Vieira and Marco Rubio have never exchanged a call or a stupid. So I imagine this kind of relationship is already committed since the election,” says Pires.

Reaction in Congress

Deputy Filipe Barros (PL/PR), who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Commission of the House of Representatives, celebrated on a social network the defense made to Bolsonaro. “Trump’s blunt demonstration widens the four corners of the planet the unprecedented injustices being executed in Brazil against Jair Bolsonaro and the population that defends their flags,” he wrote.

He added: “Thanks to Bolsonaro’s intense work, Trump also reverberates to the world that, in 26, an election without Bolsonaro is the consummation of the attack today against the country’s democracy.”

Deputy Alencar Santana (PT-SP) also made a post about Trump’s statements. “For someone convicted criminally-tried guilty in 34 accusations!-and who does not know the limits between the government he heads and his personal business, Donald Trump is very boquirotus. But he ignores that Brazil is a sovereign country and with institutions that defend the rule of law and democracy. Jair Bolsonaro goes to jail and he will be able to visit him, if he desired,” wrote.

Business agreements

During the BRICS meeting, countries do not sign a deal properly, but a statement of intent. From there, formal agreements with effective consequences in the management of international relations in various sectors may result.

According to Ramalho, “the declaration is positive for Brazil for several reasons: it shows the ability to repair Brazilian diplomacy, advances bold proposals, for example, regarding the financing of green energy transition and the taxation of large fortunes; advances in innovative commitments in the field of artificial intelligence regulation; compromises countries to strengthen multilateralism.”