Lula bets on tripling trade balance with Vietnam and sees potential of $ 20 billion

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (PT) said on Saturday (29) that Brazil has the potential to triple its flow in the trade balance with Vietnam of the current US $ 7.7 billion per year to up to 20 billion. According to an action plan signed by Lula with Vietnamese authorities, the goal, the Pronípio, is to double the flow, reaching $ 15 billion by 2030.

In a closing discourse of the Brazil-Vietnam Economic Forum, Lula said he believed in increasing flow because, since 2008, when he first visited the country, trade between the two countries grew more than twelve times.

“When I was first here, our exchange was modest, just over $ 500 million. At that time, we set the ambitious goal of tripling bilateral trade in three years. We reached this goal and continued to expand our exchanges,” Lula said in a speech in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam.

Lula celebrated the opening of the Vietnamese market to the Brazilian beef, agreed on Friday, 28. The agreement, according to the Brazilian president, “is the first step taken” in the direction of increasing commercial flow between the two countries.

The petista stated that Brazil will be “the gateway to Vietnam to Latin America” and promised that, the next time the country assumes the command of Mercosur, will begin negotiations to sign an agreement between Vietnam and the Economic Block of South America. The presidency of Mercosur is rotating.

Lula also made a veiled criticism of US President Donald Trump. Without mentioning the name of the American, the Brazilian president criticized the effect of protectionism on global trade. “When protectionism threatens to disorganize global value chains, we are allies in the struggle for fairer international trade based on multilaterally agreed rules,” he said.

During his speech, Lula also mentioned former Ho Chi Minh President, who was a central figure of the Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War against the United States. “The comrade Ho Chi Minh said that the roots of nations are people. Promoting commerce and investments is the best way to generate employment, income and dignity for our societies,” said the Brazilian.

In a press conference at the end of the visit to the Asia country, the president again criticized the search for former executive chief Jair Bolsonaro (PL), amnesty for the attacks of January 8, 2023 in Brasilia. Lula said Bolsonaro ‘knows he did what he is being accused’.