Meeting between Mauro Vieira and Marco Rubio ends in the US

The meeting between Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio lasted just over an hour. The meeting took place on Thursday afternoon, the 16th, at the White House, and began around 3 p.m. (Brasília time).

The first part of the meeting lasted about 15 minutes and involved only Rubio and Vieira. Afterwards, members of both teams joined the discussion.

Vieira and Rubio are in talks amid the Lula administration's (Workers' Party) attempt to reverse the tariff hike imposed in August by U.S. President Donald Trump on imports of Brazilian products. Thursday's agenda could also pave the way for an in-person meeting between the two presidents.

On October 6, Lula and Trump spoke by phone . Three days later, Vieira spoke with Rubio, at which time they arranged to meet in Washington.

In April, Trump announced a global minimum tariff of 10%, which also affected Brazilian imports. On August 6, the US government decided to increase the tariff to 50% in retaliation for an alleged "witch hunt" against former President Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

The United States also imposed consular and financial sanctions on senior Brazilian officials, especially Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes , the rapporteur in the trial against Bolsonaro, who was sentenced in September to 27 years in prison for leading an attempted coup.

On Tuesday the 14th, Trump again cited his conversation with Lula on September 23rd at the UN General Assembly in New York. " I had a very good conversation with the president. I met with him at the United Nations before I went up to speak."