US President Donald Trump has met his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, on the sidelines of the 2025 ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, raising hopes for improved relations after the Bolsonaro Saga.
Lula said on Sunday that the meeting with President Trump was great and added that both countries’ negotiating teams would get to work “immediately” to tackle tariffs and other issues. Lula, in his post on X, said, “We agreed that our teams will meet immediately to advance the search for solutions to the tariffs and sanctions against Brazilian authorities.”
Earlier in July, Trump slapped 50 per cent tariffs on Brazil over what he described as a witch hunt against his ideological compatriot Jair Bolsonaro, who was sentenced to 27 years in prison for attempting a coup against the Lula-led government in 2022.
Bolsonaro’s supporters protested the move in the country’s capital. The US government, in response, has sanctioned several US officials, including Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who oversaw the trial that led to Bolsonaro’s conviction.
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Before Sunday's meeting, Trump said he could finalise some agreements with Lula and expected the two countries to enjoy strong ties despite his concerns about the former president’s fate in the Latin American nation. “I think we should be able to make some pretty good deals for both countries,” Trump said.
Lula previously described the US tariff hike as a “mistake”, citing a $410 billion US trade surplus with Brazil over 15 years.
Meanwhile, Brazilian foreign minister Mauro Vieira said that negotiations would commence immediately and his country had requested a pause in tariffs while talks go on. “We hope to wind up bilateral talks that address each of the sectors of the current American tariffs on Brazil in the near future, in a few weeks,” Vieira said.
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