Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said that, if the United States imposes tariffs on his country, he will respond in kind.
Speaking at a news conference in the capital Brasilia, on Thursday, Lula said his country seeks a relationship based on mutual respect. His comments came in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat of heightened tariffs.
“It is very simple: If he taxes Brazilian products, there will be reciprocity,” Lula told reporters.
“Trump was elected to run the US, and I was elected to run Brazil. I will respect the US and want Trump to respect Brazil. That’s all.”
The comments are the latest signal that Trump’s efforts may spark a trade war with US allies.
Lula’s stance also offers a model for how other Latin American countries might respond to Trump’s protectionist policies. Trump has touted tariffs as a mechanism to boost domestic industry, as well as to force international rivals to accede to demands ranging from manufacturing to migration.
Earlier this week, Trump threatened large tariffs against Colombia when President Gustavo Petro initially refused to allow a US military flight bearing undocumented immigrants to land.
Petro objected to the US treatment of the immigrants, some of whom were reportedly handcuffed.
After the two leaders exchanged tariff threats, Petro backed down, allowing future flights to proceed, despite implying a comparison between Trump and “white slavers”.
But Trump has proceeded to dangle the prospect of tariffs against other countries since the diplomatic spat.
On Thursday, for instance, he told reporters that he planned to make good on a promise to impose 25 percent tariffs on the neighbouring countries of Canada and Mexico, two of the US’s biggest trading partners.
“We don’t need the products that they have,” Trump said.
Trump has indicated the tariffs would incentivise Mexico and Canada to tighten their border security and stem the flow of drugs, migrants and asylum seekers. In the past, Trump has also threatened to carry out military strikes inside of Mexico to deal with drug-trafficking cartels that move fentanyl over the border.
Experts tie the mounting shadow of tariffs to Trump’s stated desire to pursue an “America First” foreign policy, putting US interests above all else.
His remarks at his second inauguration on January 20 emphasised that platform. Not only did he tease impending tariffs “to enrich our citizens”, but he also laid out an expansionist vision for the US’s future, including through the seizure of the Panama Canal.
Those threats, however, have not been well received in Latin America, where a long history of US interventions and meddling remains resonant.
“I have governed Brazil while the US had Republican and Democratic presidents, and our relationship has always been between two sovereign countries,” said Lula, who began his third non-consecutive term in office in 2023 after defeating Trump ally Jair Bolsonaro.
The US has a trade deficit with Brazil, from which it buys products such as coffee, oil, steel, aircraft and orange juice.
Brazil, meanwhile, largely purchases US goods like energy products, pharmaceutical goods and aircraft parts. According to Brazil’s Foreign Trade Secretariat, the country exported $337bn in goods to the US in 2024, and imported $262.5bn.
But experts say trade deficits are not necessarily a sign of an unhealthy economic relationship: They are affected by factors such as consumer demand and currency values.
There are also fears that a US-sparked trade war could empower other economic rivals to step in.
China, for example, has expanded its economic ties with South America in recent years, becoming the primary trading partner for most countries in the region.