The Brazilian president Lula da Silva has announced this week his intention to summon the leaders of the member countries of the BRICS block – mainly India and China – to assess a joint response to the recent US tariffs. The United States decision to impose 50% rates on imports of Brazilian products has lit the alarms in the South American country and further tensioning the relations between both powers.
With its characteristic firm but diplomatic tone, Lula has made it clear that, for now, it has no intention of establishing direct contact with former president Donald Trump, architect of this measure. “The day my intuition tells me that Trump is ready to talk, I will not hesitate to call him,” said Lula, “but today my intuition tells me that he does not want to speak and that I am not going to humiliate myself.”
Beyond the symbolic tone, Brazil does not contemplate, at least for the moment, to apply reciprocal tariffs in direct response. However, Lula has confirmed that his government will keep the conversations at the cabinet level open, defending a strategy that combines firmness, dialogue and coordination with international partners.
The president also took the opportunity to renew an old aspiration of the BRICS block: find alternatives to the dollar as dominant currency in international trade. “I do not need to be subordinated to the dollar,” he said, referring to the growing interest of emerging countries to establish more autonomous financial mechanisms.
This statement not only responds to a commercial dispute context, but is framed in a broader vision of global geoeconomic rebalancing. The BRICS, who group some of the largest emerging economies on the planet, have intensified in recent years their efforts to reduce their dependence on the financial system led by the West.
In an increasingly polarized international scenario, Lula's position reinforces the role of Brazil as an active actor within the block and defender of a new multipolar order. While the markets observe carefully the evolution of the tariff conflict, Brazil's message seems clear: it is not just rates, but of economic sovereignty.
