U.S. and Brazil Leaders Meet in Malaysia, Trump signals potential deals

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had a positive meeting with U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in Malaysia on Sunday, Brazil’s foreign minister said.

“We will establish a negotiation schedule and establish the sectors we will talk about so that we can move forward,” Mauro Vieira told journalists at the summit, adding that Brazil had requested tariffs be suspended during the negotiation process.

Lula said he was optimistic that relations between Brazil and the United States would advance during his meeting with Trump.

“There’s no reason for having any other kind of conflict between Brazil and the United States,” Lula said through a translator.

Meanwhile, Trump said the two countries “should be able to make some pretty good deals.”

The leaders were speaking ahead of their meeting on the sidelines of the ASEAN summit in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday.

In early August, Trump increased tariffs on U.S. imports of most Brazilian goods to 50% from 10%, which Lula described as a “mistake”, citing a $410 billion U.S. trade surplus with Brazil over 15 years.