Under tension in South America, Lula and Trump debate tariffs this Sunday

The big classic of the weekend should be played on Sunday: the long-awaited face-to-face meeting between Lula and Donald Trump so that they can finally negotiate the tariffs and sanctions imposed by the US government on Brazilian authorities. The meeting takes place in Malaysia, but at a time of tension in South America, when the USA sends an aircraft carrier to the region to “combat drug trafficking”.

Columnist Mariana Sanches hopes that the meeting will see, on the one hand, the US suspending extra tariffs, at least temporarily, and perhaps also removing Brazilian products from the tax list; and, on the other, Brazil committing to billion-dollar purchases or investments in the USA, through national giants such as Embraer and JBS.

Diplomats interviewed by Sanches believe that the meeting must have some concrete result and rule out the possibility of it being an “ambush” like the one to which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was subjected.