Trump Welcomes Pick of Brazil President’s Son as U.S. Ambassador
Trump Says U.S. to Begin Working on Brazil Free-Trade Deal
(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump welcomed the prospect of the Brazilian president’s son becoming the new ambassador to the U.S., as he played up the chances of a free trade deal with the Latin American nation.
Trump described the pick of Eduardo Bolsonaro, a federal lawmaker, for Brazil’s top diplomatic posting as a “great appointment” in comments to reporters in Washington and downplayed suggestions that it might be considered nepotism. “He’s a brilliant, wonderful young man.”
Eduardo, 35, is the president of the lower house’s foreign relations committee, but has no diplomatic experience, prompting even some government allies to express concern about the suitability of his appointment. President Jair Bolsonaro, however, has shown no signs of backing down, expressing confidence that the Senate will approve Eduardo’s nomination as his English-language skills and good relationship with Trump would ensure stronger U.S-Brazil trade ties.
Trade Deal
Trump also said his administration would start working on a free-trade agreement with Brazil, remarks echoed by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross at an event in Sao Paulo on Tuesday.
“Trump and Bolsonaro are committed to reducing trade barriers and facilitating investments across a variety of industries, especially energy, infrastructure, agriculture and technology,” Ross said.
The U.S Chamber of Commerce in Brazil, known as Amcham, hosted the event and set out a proposal for a free trade agreement between the two countries that could increase the Latin American nation’s annual GDP by 1.3% by 2030.
As a member of Mercosur, the South American customs union, Brazil needs to be attentive to any “poison pills” in the bloc’s recent trade agreement with the European Union that could hinder a deal with the U.S.
China overtook the U.S. as Brazil’s top trading partner around a decade ago, but Bolsonaro has repeatedly spoken of his desire to expand trade relations with the U.S., currently worth around $62 billion a year. In a recent visit to Washington, he told Trump that Brazil would be willing to forgo some benefits at the World Trade Organization in return for U.S. deal.
Asked about the timing of a deal with Brazil, Ross said trade agreements by nature “can be thousands of pages and can take a long time.”
To contact the reporters on this story: David Biller in Rio de Janeiro at dbiller1@bloomberg.net;Aline Oyamada in Sao Paulo at aoyamada3@bloomberg.net;Justin Sink in Washington at jsink1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Juan Pablo Spinetto at jspinetto@bloomberg.net, ;Walter Brandimarte at wbrandimarte@bloomberg.net, Bruce Douglas, Robert Jameson
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