Brazil’s Lula says he won’t take orders from ‘gringo’ Trump, calls tariffs blackmail
US president is set to hit Brazil with 50 per cent tariffs, citing unfair trade practices and the treatment of his ally Bolsonaro
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Thursday said he would not take orders over tariffs from a foreigner, referring to US President Donald Trump, and later called the United States’ threatened duty “unacceptable blackmail”.
The comments, made during two separate events, mark a continuation of a spat between the two leaders that escalated when the US announced a 50 per cent tariff on Brazil last week.
Trump attributed the tariff, set to start in August, to Brazil’s treatment of former president Jair Bolsonaro and to trade practices against US companies that he said are unfair. The tariff announcement came days after Lula called Trump an “emperor” the world does not want.
Lula and members of his cabinet have rejected the reasoning behind the tariffs and insisted on Brazil’s sovereignty, while calling for trade negotiations with the United States.
“No foreigner is going to give orders to this president,” Lula said in a speech, using the slang word ‘gringo’, which in Brazil is a common term for foreigners without the pejorative sense it carries in other parts of Latin America.
He added that Brazil would go ahead with regulation and taxation of US tech firms, telling a gathering of leftist student activists in the state of Goias that tech firms were conduits of violence and fake news disguised as freedom of expression.