What Trump and Lula Want from U.S.-Brazil Ties

Fernanda, thank you so much for being with us today.

My first question for you is about timing, timing for this meeting, since we know this meeting between Lula and Trump was something Brazil diplomats were working on since the beginning of the year, and it didn't happen right away.

Can we talk about why now, and what does this meeting, which was confirmed and happened within a week, says about this relationship?

Thank you so much for your invitation.

It's a pleasure to be here with you.

And well, let's start by saying that, uh, Luiza, this is not the best moment of the bilateral relationship, and at the same time, it's not the worst moment at all.

Uh, I believe that the, the choosing for this specific period for the meeting was kind of made by opportunity.

Actually, the Brazilian diplomats, they were trying very hard to get this meeting done, especially because of the tariffs.

Brazil is very worried about the investigation that is under execution right now in USTR, and-

Mm-hmm

... uh, the Brazilian authorities consider that maybe in one or two months some tariffs can again be, be decided, uh, against Brazil.

We had-

Mm

... a very high tariff decided last year, almost one year ago.

Then they were partly removed, but now we have this investigation under Section 301.

So, uh, the timing is based on the feeling that the Brazilian government had to in advance work to avoid having tariffs, uh, imposed again.

So this was the main preoccupation, the main reason that the Brazilian government was trying to push very hard for the meeting in this moment.

Also, we have another subject in the agenda that is related to the combat of narco trafficking in Latin America and Brazil in particular.

The Trump government, uh, isGiving some information is signaling for the possibility of considering some of the criminal groups in Brazil as narco terrorists.

FTO designations, Foreign Terrorist Organization designation.

We spoke about it in the podcast before.

Yeah, exactly.

The, uh, two groups, uh, in Brazil are maybe being considered to, uh, be included under this designation, PCC and, uh, Comando Vermelho.

So the Brazilian government, the current Brazilian government, is mainly aga- against it because the idea is that if Brazil receives this kind of designation, uh, for these two groups, maybe it can open doors for some kind of intervention in the future.

We can somehow lose control over, uh, the negotiations, uh, related to cooperation, uh, in security and, uh, this agenda in particular.