Trump and Brazilian president Lula have a “friendly” call

President Donald Trump and his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, received a call described by both parties as friendly and positive because Brazil seeks to reduce a price of 50% American on imports.

In the video chat on Monday, Lula asked Trump to delete most of the tasks. Trump said on social networks that they had a “very good phone call”.

This is the first time that the two have spoken officially since they had a brief meeting in the United Nations General Assembly in New York last month.

Relations had been frozen since Trump increased the prices this summer at 50% on certain Brazilian products this summer in response to the coup d’etat of Lula predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

Lula had accused Trump of foreign interference and behaving like an “emperor”.

But on Monday, the Brazilian government said that the two leaders had spoken of a “friendly tone” for half an hour and “submitted to the right chemistry” that they had in New York.

Lula described Reunion as an opportunity to “restore” friendly relations between “the two greatest Western democracies” and reiterated that the United States had a commercial excess with Brazil.

He asked that the prices be reduced to their original 10% and that sanctions against certain Brazilian officials be deleted.

The two exchanged phone numbers to stay in contact directly.

Trump said on his social platform of truth: “He (the call) was mainly focused on the economy and trade between our two countries.

“We will have other discussions and we will bring together in the not too distant future, both in Brazil and the United States.”

Brazilian vice-president Geraldo Alckmin described the call as “better than expected”, and said that he was optimistic about talks between the two countries.

Lula invited Trump to the United Nations climate summit next month in Belém, Brazil, suggested meeting at the Anase summit in Malaysia, and offered to travel to the United States.

Trump appointed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to continue negotiations with Brazil vice-president, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Finance.

A source in the Brazilian government near Lula told the BBC that the appointment of Rubio as a main negotiator on the issue of prices was still being examined by the team led by Vice-President Alckmin.

The source noted that the Brazilian government did not have the fact that Rubio is considered to be part of the so-called “ideological wing” of the Trump administration.

On the other hand, the source added that, for the government, it was preferable to have a negotiator which is directly linked to the president and to his approval, rather than someone without direct communication with Trump.

Another source, also involved in the negotiations and to speak at BBC Brasil provided of anonymity, was more direct: they said that the Lula government would have preferred a different interlocutor from Rubio.