US President Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, have had a call described by both sides as friendly and positive as Brazil seeks to reduce a 50% US tariff on imports.
In Monday’s video chat, Lula asked Trump to remove most of the duties. Trump said on social media they had a “very good telephone call”.
It is the first time the two have spoken formally since they had a brief encounter at the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.
Relations had been icy since Trump raised tariffs this summer to 50% on some Brazilian goods in response to the trial of Lula’s predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, who was found guilty of plotting a military coup.
Lula had accused Trump of foreign interference and behaving like an “emperor”.
But on Monday, the Brazilian government said the two leaders spoke in a “friendly tone” for half an hour and “reminisced about the good chemistry” they had in New York.
Lula described the meeting as an opportunity to “restore” friendly relations between “the two largest Western democracies” and reiterated that the US had a trade surplus with Brazil.
He requested that tariffs be reduced to their original 10% and for sanctions on some Brazilian officials be removed.
The two exchanged phone numbers to keep in touch directly.
Trump said on his Truth Social platform: “It [the call] was mostly focused on the economy, and trade, between our two countries.
“We will be having further discussions, and will get together in the not too distant future, both in Brazil and the United States.”
Brazilian Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin described the call as “better than expected”, and said he was optimistic about talks between the two countries.
Lula invited Trump to next month’s UN climate summit in Belém, Brazil, suggested meeting during the Asean summit in Malaysia, and offered to travel to the US.
Trump has appointed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to continue negotiations with Brazil’s vice-president, foreign minister and finance minister.
A source within the Brazilian government close to Lula told the BBC that the appointment of Rubio as lead negotiator on the tariff issue was still being reviewed by the team led by Vice-President Alckmin.
The source noted that the Brazilian government was not ignoring the fact that Rubio was considered part of the so-called “ideological wing” of the Trump administration.
On the other hand, the source added that, for the government, it was preferable to have a negotiator who was directly connected to the president and had his endorsement, rather than someone without direct communication with Trump.
Another source, also involved in the negotiations and speaking to BBC Brasil on condition of anonymity, was more direct: they said that Lula’s government would have preferred a different interlocutor to Rubio.
