President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and China President XI Jinping reinforced the willingness in continue working to identify new business opportunities between the two countries. Amid the new US policy to raise tariffs against business partners, Lula called the Chinese leader on the night of Monday (11)when they talked for about an hour.
According to Xinhua, Chinese news agency, Xi Jinping said that the Asian country wants to establish an example of “unity and self -sufficiency” among the main global southern countries and “jointly build a fairer world and a more sustainable planet.” The Chinese leader “has called on all countries to join and oppose unilateralism and protectionism resolutely.”.
The White House tariff try to reverse the relative loss of competitiveness from the American economy to China in recent decades. Presidents agree on the role of the G20 – group of the largest economies in the world – and BRICS – Block of emerging countries – in the defense of multilateralism and construction of consensus in the global south.
“Xi also said that China supports the Brazilian people in defense of their national sovereignty and supports Brazil in safeguarding their rights and legitimate interests […]. XI has appealed to the global southern countries that jointly safeguard equity and justice in the international community, defend the basic norms that govern international relations and protect the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries, ”says Xinhua.
China is the largest commercial partner in Brazil and the two nations have a global strategic partnership, a higher level in diplomatic relations.
“In this context, they grew the advances already made in the scope of synergies between the national development programs of both countries and pledged to broaden the scope of cooperation for sectors such as health, oil and gas, digital economy and satellites,” says Brazil’s presidential statement about the conversation between leaders.
In April, US President Donald Trump started Trade war imposing customs barriers on countries according to the size of the deficit that the United States has with each nation. As the US has surplus with Brazil, at that time, the lowest rate of 10%was imposed.
However, in early July, Trump raised the rate to 50% against Brazil in retaliation of decisions that, according to him, They would harm the American Big Techs and in response to the trial of former President Jair Bolsonaro, accused of leading an attempt to coup after losing the 2022 election. To the New rates came into force on August 6 and affect 35.9% of goods sent to the US market, representing 4% of Brazilian exports.
The federal government is finalizing a Contingency plan To help the sectors of the economy affected by imposed tariffs, which should provide for credit granting measures for the most impacted companies and increased government purchases.
In addition, the Lula government’s foreign trade policy is to open new markets for Brazilian products. In a recent statement, Finance Minister Fernando Haddad recalled that exports to the United States have already accounted for 25% of what the country sends out and today they represent 12%.
Last week, Lula said that a call to President XI Jinping also aimed to intermediate the chicken foot sales to China, after the resumption of the status of a country free of avian flu. The Asian country is the largest buyer of Brazilian chicken meat and suspended imports after outbreaks of the disease in the country.
During the conversation, leaders also exchanged impressions about the current international conjuncture and recent efforts for peace between Russia and Ukraine, in the war that has lasted more than three years.
Lula also reinforced the Importance of Chinese participation in 30th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP30)]which will take place in Belém (PA) in November this year.
“President XI indicated that China will be represented in Bethlehem by high level delegation and will work with Brazil for the success of the conference,” says the note.
