Brazil aims to triple trade flows with India, Lula says
Speaking alongside Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after a state visit in Brasilia, Lula also said Brazilian planemaker Embraer (EMBR3.SA), opens new tab wants to strengthen its presence in India, partnering with companies there.
Lula also said that expanding a preferential trade agreement between India and South American bloc Mercosur could help reduce both tariff and non-tariff barriers that are limiting trade.
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Reuters
3 days ago
- Reuters
Brazil scrambles as U.S. tariff deadline looms, talks stall
SAO PAULO, July 25 (Reuters) - Brazil is scrambling to avert punishing 50% U.S. tariffs in a week's time, but high level talks are stalled and U.S. companies are reluctant to confront U.S. President Donald Trump over the issue, officials and industry leaders say. Trump linked the tariffs, which he has said would come into effect on Aug. 1, to Brazil's treatment of former President Jair Bolsonaro, who is on trial over charges of plotting a coup to stop President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office. Lula has called the threatened duty "unacceptable blackmail." No new diplomatic talks have occurred since last month, and a Brazilian counter-proposal sent in May went unanswered, two diplomats with knowledge of the matter told Reuters. Brazilian Vice-President Geraldo Alckmin told reporters on Thursday that he reiterated the country's willingness to negotiate in a Saturday discussion with U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick. The lack of communication has left Brazil with dwindling options as the deadline approaches. "If he wanted to talk, he would pick up the phone and call me," Lula said of Trump at an event on Thursday. The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Negotiations are complicated by U.S. concerns over the prosecution of Bolsonaro, a Trump ally, one diplomat said, calling it a major roadblock. Trump announced the proposed 50% tariffs on Brazil on July 9 despite a U.S. trade surplus with the country - lining it up for one of the world's very highest such levies, close to China's 55% rate. In a series of 18 meetings, Alckmin has urged representatives from U.S. firms including General Motors (GM.N), opens new tab, John Deere (DE.N), opens new tab and Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), opens new tab to press Washington on the issue. However, the companies are reluctant to confront Trump for fear of retaliation, according to a government official and Ricardo Alban, president of Brazil's main industry lobby, CNI. "Things are very tense," Alban told reporters on Thursday. Also on Thursday, a group of Democratic senators condemned the tariffs on Brazil as a "clear abuse of power" in a letter to Trump. The tariffs could have a severe economic impact. The CNI estimates over 100,000 Brazilian jobs could be lost, potentially trimming 0.2% from the country's gross domestic product. The country's powerful agribusiness lobby, CNA, projects the value of its U.S. exports could fall by half. Alban said the potential blow to exporters could be worse than the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that business leaders are asking the government for aid, suggesting new credit lines. In response, some companies are already adjusting their trade strategies. Motor maker WEG ( opens new tab is considering a plan to use its plants in Mexico and India to supply the U.S., its chief financial officer told analysts. Meat exporter Naturafrig Alimentos has begun redirecting shipments to other countries, according to commercial director Fabrizzio Capuci. Other companies are turning to the courts. Orange juice producer Johanna Foods, for example, has sued the Trump administration over the proposed tariffs. Companies in sectors ranging from steel to chemicals are also facing export contract cancellations, according to one advisor who asked not to be named. Abiquim, an association that represents chemical companies in Brazil, confirmed cancellations due to the threat of tariffs, without naming the companies affected. A lobby group representing steel companies declined to comment.
The Independent
4 days ago
- The Independent
India is targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims for expulsion to Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch warns
Indian authorities have forcibly pushed hundreds of Muslims into Bangladesh without due process, Human Rights Watch said. The rights group, based in the US, accused Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government of targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims from West Bengal and Assam for political gain ahead of elections in the two eastern states. India expelled over 1,500 Muslim men, women, and children to Bangladesh between 7 May and 15 June alone, the rights group said, citing the Bangladeshi border guard. New Delhi hasn't disclosed the number of people deported to the neighbouring country. After the massacre of 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists, in the restive Himalayan region of Kashmir in May, the federal home ministry declared a 30-day deadline for states to round up undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants. In the event, critics said, authorities in Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Delhi – all states ruled by Mr Modi's BJP party – rounded up mostly Bengali-speaking migrant workers from West Bengal and Assam. Bengali is one of India's 22 official languages. 'India's ruling BJP is fuelling discrimination by arbitrarily expelling Bengali Muslims from the country, including Indian citizens," Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said. 'The government is putting thousands of vulnerable people at risk in apparent pursuit of unauthorised immigrants but their actions reflect broader discriminatory policies against Muslims." Assam's chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a member of the BJP, said the state had been told by the Supreme Court 'that those who are declared foreigners have to be returned [to their country of origin] by whatever means'. This month he wrote on X that 'protecting Assam's interests is foremost', and that 'illegal infiltrators WILL NOT BE ALLOWED to stay in Assam and threaten our identity'. Senior BJP members regularly refer to undocumented immigrants from Bangladesh as 'infiltrators", a term that has also been used more broadly to vilify Indian Muslims. Ms Pearson said the claim that the expulsions were meant to manage illegal immigration was "unconvincing" and showed the ruling party's 'disregard for due process rights, domestic guarantees, and international human rights standards'. A 51-year-old labourer told the rights group he had "walked into Bangladesh like a dead body" after India's Border Security Force pushed him across after midnight. "The BSF officer beat me when I refused to cross the border into Bangladesh and fired rubber bullets four times in the air,' he said. The migrant worker, the group said, was repatriated to India two weeks later. Authorities in West Bengal, governed by a regional party, said they repatriated dozens of residents who had been forcibly sent into Bangladesh by the Modi government. At least 300 of the people expelled to Bangladesh were from Assam, which underwent a contentious citizenship verification process in 2019 that excluded nearly two million people. Nazimuddin Sheikh, 34, a migrant worker from West Bengal, was detained in Mumbai and expelled to Bangladesh in June after police raided his home and allegedly "tore up his identity documents". The BSF did not listen when he and his fellow workers protested that they were Indian, Mr Sheikh told the Human Rights Watch. 'If we spoke too much, they beat us. They hit me with sticks on my back and hands,' he said. 'They were beating us and telling us to say we are Bangladeshi.' West Bengal's chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, one of Mr Modi's fiercest rivals, earlier called out the ruling party for the crackdown. "Is speaking Bengali a crime?" she asked. "You should be ashamed that by doing this, you're making everyone who speaks Bengali appear to be Bangladeshi." She said nearly 2.2m migrant workers from Bengal were working elsewhere in the country while about 15m people from outside were working in the eastern state. The Independent has approached the BJP for comment. In addition to Bengali workers, Indian authorities also deported around 100 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, taking them from a detention centre in Assam and pushing them into Bangladesh. Another 40 Rohingya were forced to jump into the sea near Myanmar, handed life jackets and told to swim ashore, the UN human rights office said. Bangladesh shares a 4,096km border with India, the fifth-longest in the world. The two countries have experienced multiple waves of undocumented migration since the British partition of the subcontinent in 1947. Mr Modi this month accused Ms Banerjee's government in West Bengal of "encouraging' illegal immigration "for the sake of vote bank politics". The issue of immigration from Bangladesh is expected to become a focal point of the 2026 election in West Bengal, a key target for the BJP.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Reuters
Debt-plagued Maldives to host Modi, continuing to rebuild ties with lender
NEW DELHI/COLOMBO, July 25 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to enhance India's development partnership with the Maldives in a two-day visit this week to the Indian Ocean archipelago, where India competes with China for influence. Modi, who landed in Male on Friday, is the first foreign leader to visit President Mohamed Muizzu after he took office in 2023 with a pledge to end the Maldives' "India first" policy, and upgraded ties with China. Muizzu's moves briefly soured relations with New Delhi, before India helped to prevent the $7.5 billion economy from defaulting on its debt as the Maldives struggled to get tourists to its white-sand beaches and luxury resorts. He has since visited both countries, the Maldives' main bilateral lenders, to secure financial support, as well as signing trade pacts with China and Turkey and initiating talks with India on a trade agreement and an investment treaty. Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said steady diplomacy had helped to rebuild ties: "There will always be events that will impact or try to intrude on the relationship. But I think this is testimony to the kind of attention that has been paid to the relationship, and including attention at the highest levels." Former Maldives foreign minister Abdulla Shahid told Reuters that Modi's visit indicated Muizzu had "decided to step back and correct the narrative". India is expected to extend a line of credit worth $565 million to the Maldives, and talks on a Free Trade Agreement are expected to formally begin. Modi will also remotely inaugurate an expansion of the International Airport on the island of Hanimadhoo, which India is helping to finance, and attend Saturday's celebration of the Maldives' 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.
