Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has declined to personally call President Donald Trump to resolve the ongoing trade dispute, telling Reuters that to do so would be a “humiliation.”
“The day my intuition says Trump is ready to talk, I won’t hesitate to call him,” he told the outlet. “But today my intuition says he doesn’t want to talk. And I’m not going to humiliate myself.”
He further indicated that he would not impose retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. Trump slapped the South American nation with a 50% tariff after warning the nation against pursuing charges against former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
Brazil has pursued charges against Bolsonaro over a post-election riot by his supporters in which they stormed key buildings of the Brazilian government. Bolsonaro was not in the country at the time.
The Treasury Department has since imposed sanctions on Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, the judge overseeing the case.
