Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated Wednesday (Jun. 3) that Brazil will continue to seek new business partners to minimize the impacts of the trade policy adopted by the US. Lula chaired a ministerial meeting amid the announcement of new US tariffs on Brazilian products.

“We will seek out other partners. If they don’t want to buy, we’ll sell to whoever does. We won’t just sit around complaining. If they don’t want to invest here, we’ll look for someone else. Brazil is its own master. This is a democratic and sovereign country,” he told his cabinet ministers.

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On Monday (1), the US Trade Representative (USTR) proposed, among other measures, a 25 percent tariff on certain Brazilian goods imported by the US. The USTR report is the result of an investigation launched a year ago by President Trump’s administration into Brazil’s alleged “unfair trade practices” with the US.

Among other issues, to justify the measure, the agency accuses Brazil’s instant payment system Pix of “unfairly” harming US companies that provide electronic payment services – such as credit card operators MasterCard and Visa and WhatsApp Pay.

G7 summit

President Lula stated he will attend the G7 summit in June in France, which had not been part of his plans originally. The event brings together the leaders of Germany, Canada, the US, France, Italy, Japan, and the UK. Brazil will attend as a guest of the host, French President Emmanuel Macron.

“I wasn’t even going to the G7, but now I am. Someone needs to try to bring order to the house and stop this dismantling of multilateralism, democracy, and the devaluation of institutions. If the UN isn’t working today, we’re not going to fix the world by destroying the UN; we’re going to fix it by rebuilding the UN,” said Lula, reaffirming his support for strengthening the United Nations and reforming its Security Council.
 

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated that Brazil could be “much better off” if the people had not been influenced by lies told during the election period by politicians uncommitted to the poor.

The statement was made during the delivery ceremony of 576 affordable housing units in Manaus, Amazonas state. With an investment of BRL 92.1 million, the project is likely to benefit 2 thousand people.

According to Lula, people like those in the audience – who have benefited from the government’s affordable housing program – are often treated as “invisible” by most politicians.

Maturity and seriousness

The president asked voters to show “maturity and seriousness” in distinguishing truth from lies when deciding the future of Brazil, given the spread of false information using AI on social media.

“Brazil could already be doing much better as a country. If that’s not the case, it’s because every now and then we elect someone who has no commitment to anything. These are people who hold the office of president, but have never spoken to you, never seen you, and don’t care about the poor,” he said.

In the view of these people, he went on to argue, the poor only matter during election season.

“You should know that, when it comes to deciding the fate of this country, this city, this state, you have to act with great maturity and seriousness. We can’t keep believing the lies we’re fed 24 hours a day on our phones,” he argued.

“Now they’ve come up with something called artificial intelligence, which is great for health care, education, science, and technology. It’s great for so many things. But I don’t think it’s any good for elections, because artificial intelligence can spread a lot of lies through cell phones. So we’re going to have to be really responsible, because this country needs serious people,” he added.