Brazil is open for business, Lula says at Chinese factory opening
"Count on the Brazilian government. Whoever wants to leave, leave. Whoever wants to come, we welcome you with open arms," Lula said at the ceremony.
During his speech, Lula criticized the 50% tariffs on Brazilian goods imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump, and said that his country is facing an "unnecessary turbulence."
Lula said in an interview with Reuters earlier this month that he would initiate a conversation at the BRICS group of developing nations, which includes China, about how to tackle Trump's tariffs.
The leftist leader noted that in the past automakers Ford (F.N), opens new tab and Mercedes (MBGn.DE), opens new tab have decided to scale back their operations in Brazil, but celebrated the arrival of other companies, like China's GWM (601633.SS), opens new tab. Brazil is always open to negotiating business, he stressed.
GWM's Brazilian arm has capacity to produce 50,000 vehicles per year and is expected to generate more than 2,000 jobs in the future when it begins exporting vehicles to Latin America, according to a press release.
Brazil's auto exports are expected to grow 38.4% in 2025 compared to 2024, reaching 552,000 units, data from automakers association Anfavea showed last week.
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The Independent
21 minutes ago
- The Independent
Trump rows back threat of ‘secondary tariffs' against India and China after Putin summit
US president Donald Trump has played down the prospect of imposing so-called 'secondary tariffs' on buyers of Russian oil after his meeting with Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Trump had proposed the levies as a new way of pressuring Russia's war-time economy if it failed to stop its invasion of Ukraine, and they were largely due to impact China and India, by far the two biggest buyers of Russian crude. Mr Trump earlier this month doubled duties on Indian products to 50 per cent after imposing an additional 25 per cent tariff for buying Russian oil, kicking off from 27 August. New Delhi was facing the risk of even higher tariffs if Mr Trump's summit in Alaska failed to end Russia's war in Ukraine after the US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that 'secondary tariffs could go up' if things don't go well at the meeting. In recent days, Mr Trump has expressed his anger with India for its refusal to stop buying oil from Russia. He has accused India of financing Russia's war in Ukraine by purchasing discounted crude from Moscow. China remains the largest market for Russian oil exports. However, raising tariffs on Beijing threatens to break a delicate truce deal between China and the US after it was extended for another 90 days. The truce saw both countries lowering tariffs on each other's goods after the trade war between the two biggest economies threatened to upend global markets. On board Air Force One on his way to meet Mr Putin in Alaska, Mr Trump still appeared undecided on whether he would impose secondary tariffs or not, saying they would be 'very devastating' for China in particular and suggesting Russia had already 'lost an oil client' in India. ''If I have to do it, I'll do it. Maybe I won't have to do it,' he said. After the nearly three-hour-long meeting with Mr Putin, Mr Trump hailed the Alaska summit as a 'great and very successful day' although 'we didn't get there' on agreeing an immediate ceasefire. He instead endorsed Russia's longstanding position – that Kyiv and Moscow would need to agree a full peace deal while fighting continued in the background. And in a post-summit interview with Hannity, Mr Trump said he would hold off on imposing secondary tariffs on China for buying Russian oil after making progress with Mr Putin. He did not mention India directly. "Because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that now," Mr Trump said of the tariffs. "I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now." India has previously said that it needs Russian oil to meet the energy needs of its fast-growing economy. The country has been sourcing nearly a third of its oil from Russia since the Ukraine war began in early 2022 and Moscow started offering it at a discounted rate. New Delhi has decried the double standards of the US sanctioning its oil purchases while continuing to buy Russian uranium hexafluoride, palladium and fertiliser. Narendra Modi's government called the US tariffs "unfair, unjustified and unreasonable" and vowed to "take all actions necessary to protect its national interests'.
Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
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BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Villa Baviera: Once a place of horror, now a tourist town - with an uncertain future
With sloping red-tiled roofs, trimmed lawns and a shop selling home-baked ginger biscuits, Villa Baviera looks like a quaint German-style village, nestled in the rolling hills of central Chile. But it has a dark known as Colonia Dignidad, it was home to a secretive religious sect founded by a manipulative and abusive leader who collaborated with the dictatorship of Augusto Schäfer, who established the colony in 1961, imposed a regime of harsh punishments and humiliation on the Germans living there. They were separated from their parents and forced to work from a young also sexually abused many of the children. After Gen Pinochet led a coup in 1973, opponents of his military regime were taken to Colonia Dignidad to be tortured in dark basements. Many of these political prisoners were never seen died in prison in 2010, but some of the German residents remained and have turned the former colony into a tourist destination, with a restaurant, hotel, cabins to rent and even a boating the Chilean government is going to expropriate some of its land to commemorate Pinochet's victims there. But the plans have divided Chile, more than 3,000 people were killed and more than 40,000 tortured during the Pinochet regime, which was in power until 1990. Luis Evangelista Aguayo was one of those who was forcibly "disappeared". His sister, Ana Aguayo, sits by the fire in her house in Parral, the nearest town to Colonia Dignidad. "Luis was quiet, he loved swimming. He wanted to create a fairer world," she Aguayo worked as a school inspector, was a member of the teachers' trade union and was active in the Socialist Party. On 12 September 1973, one day after Pinochet overthrew Chile's elected Socialist President, Salvador Allende, police came to Mr Aguayo's house and arrested him. Two days later, he was sent to the local prison, but on 26 September 1973, police arrived and dragged him into a van. His family never saw him Aguayo says a local farmer came to her house to say that he had seen her brother at the German colony. "My mother and father went to Colonia Dignidad but weren't allowed in," she said."They went everywhere looking for him, at police stations, at the courts, but could get no information. My father died of sorrow because he wasn't able to help him. My 96-year-old mother thinks she can hear him calling 'Mama, come and get me'."Mr Aguayo was one of 27 people from Parral believed to have been killed in Colonia Dignidad, according to an ongoing judicial investigation ordered by the Chilean government. The total number of people murdered here is not known, but there is evidence that this was the final destination of many opponents of the Pinochet regime, including Chilean congressman Carlos Lorca and several other Socialist Party leaders. The Chilean justice ministry says investigations suggest hundreds of political detainees were brought Aguayo supports the government's plan to create a site of memory there. "It was a place of horror and appalling crimes. It shouldn't be a place for tourists to shop or dine at a restaurant. It ought to be a place for remembrance, reflection and for educating future generations, so that it never happens again."But the government's expropriation plans have divided opinion in Villa Baviera, where fewer than 100 adults live. Dorothee Munch was born in 1977 in Colonia Dignidad. "We lived in single-sex dormitories like barracks," she recalls. "From a young age, we had to work, cleaning the dishes for the whole community and collecting firewood."The government plans to expropriate 117 hectares of the 4,829-hectare site, including buildings where torture took place, and sites where victims' bodies were exhumed, then burnt and their ashes Munch disagrees with the expropriation plans because they include the centre of the village, encompassing the residents' homes and shared businesses including a restaurant, hotel, bakery, butchers and a dairy. "We lived under a system of fear, we are victims too. We are rebuilding our lives and this will make us victims once more. Perhaps people my age could re-locate, but for the older residents it would be devastating." Erika Tymm arrived in Colonia Dignidad from Germany in 1962, aged two. Separated from her parents, she remembers crying at night for her mother. Like several other people from the colony, she says she was given electric shocks as a child. She also opposes the expropriation plans and wants to stay living in the same place. "I want to be with people who understand what I went through."Chilean Minister for Justice and Human Rights Jaime Gajardo Falcón told the BBC that the government took the decision to expropriate the area in which the main buildings of the ex-colony are concentrated. "These were sites of political detention, of torture, surveillance and training of state agents to commit crimes against humanity." The expropriation decree was published in July. Over the next few months, the state will determine the value of the expropriated assets, he residents and former residents of Villa Baviera have written to the Chilean president expressing their concern about the expropriation plans and asking to be involved in discussions about it. They have hired a public relations firm to handle their relations with the media and a representative of this firm accompanied the BBC on its visit to the the BBC spoke to several other inhabitants and former inhabitants of Colonia Dignidad who support the plan to create a memorial site. Georg Klaube lived in the Colonia Dignidad from 1962 – when he arrived from Germany with his parents aged two – until 2010. Like many boys in Colonia Dignidad, he says he was given electric shocks, forced to take psychotropic drugs and was sexually abused by Schäfer."Every night I was taken to a building, I was stripped naked, they would put a black towel on my face and electric shocks were applied, here, here, here," he says, pointing to his genitals, his throat, his feet and under his arms. "I think we should have a memorial because so much cruelty happened here to both Germans and Chileans. I cannot believe there is now a restaurant in the place where so many children's tears, urine and blood flowed." Mr Klaube is part of a legal action – supported by an association of former and current Colonia Dignidad inhabitants – which claims that the leaders of Villa Baviera are not sharing out the income of the former colony fairly. They want the government to ensure that when the expropriation takes place, the indemnification payment is distributed amongst all residents and former the other victims that support the expropriation plans are former political prisoners who were tortured in Colonia Dignidad, small farmers who were evicted from their land when the German colony was established and Chileans who lived locally and were sexually abused as children by Schä was arrested in 2005 and in 2006 convicted of sexually abusing 25 children, including five counts of child rape. Several of his accomplices were also convicted. Justice Minister Gajardo says it is important to ensure the horrors that happened here are not forgotten. "Atrocious crimes were committed here. Until now it has been private property. Once it is taken over by the state, Chileans will be able to enter freely and it will become a space for memory and reflection to ensure that such crimes are never committed again."
