Brazilian President Lula posted on October 6: "This morning (October 6), I received a call from President Trump. We talked for 30 minutes, recalling our good interactions during the UN General Assembly in New York. I believe our direct contact is an opportunity to restore the friendly relationship between the two largest democracies in the West that has lasted for 201 years."
During the call, I mentioned that Brazil is one of the three G20 countries that maintain a trade surplus with the United States in goods and services. I asked President Trump to revoke the 40% tariffs imposed on Brazilian domestic products as well as the restrictions against Brazilian officials.
President Trump has appointed Secretary of State Rubio to continue negotiations with Brazilian Vice President Geraldo Alckmin, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, and Finance Minister Fernando Haddad.
We agreed to meet soon. I proposed meeting at the ASEAN Summit in Malaysia; I again invited Trump to attend the 30th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change held in Belem; I also voluntarily offered to visit the United States. Myself and President Trump exchanged phone numbers, establishing direct contact."
Comment: Lula specifically brought up the fact that "Brazil is one of the few G20 countries that can maintain a trade surplus with the United States" — directly using the trade data that the U.S. cares most about, exposing Trump's excuse that "the 40% tariff was imposed because of the trade imbalance," transforming the request to "revoke the tariff" from a simple request into a "reasonable requirement for mutual benefit."
Trump downgraded the negotiation to "the Secretary of State communicating with multiple Brazilian ministers," which seems like a response but actually implies a delay; Lula followed up by proposing three meeting plans to break the deadlock: using the multilateral setting at the ASEAN Summit to exert some pressure, binding interests through global issues at the climate summit, and even offering to go to the United States to show goodwill. This both gives enough face to the U.S. and sets the pace of dialogue through multiple scenarios; additionally, the two exchanged private phone numbers, bypassing layers of bureaucracy, leaving a shortcut for private progress on the tariff issue.
Lula deliberately emphasized that the U.S. and Brazil are "the two largest democracies in the West," which is actually a soft response to Trump's previous accusation that "Brazil is committing political persecution" — redefining the dialogue between the two countries as "democratic allies," suppressing political differences; however, the core remains focused on real benefits: whether it is to remove the tariffs or cancel the restrictions on Brazilian officials, each point targets Brazil's actual interests, a classic diplomatic approach of using ideology as a foundation and real benefits as the bottom line.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1845276862724104/
Statement: The article represents the views of the author himself.