Lula charges against the dollar as a global currency and the IMF during a visit to China

The Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silvacriticized this Thursday the predominant use of the dollar in global trade and accused the International Monetary Fund of “asphyxiate” economies like the Argentinaon the first day of his trip to China.

The leftist leader, whose government recently announced an agreement with Beijing to trade with their own currencies -leaving aside the dollar as an intermediary-, is in China to boost economic ties with the main trading partner of Brazil and affirm that their country “is back” to the international scene.

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“Why are all countries obliged to do their trade tied to the dollar? (…) Who decided that the dollar would be the (global) currency?”, said Lula when participating in the inauguration of the former Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff (2011-2016) at the head of the bank of the BRICS (Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa).

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (R) and former Brazilian President (2011-2016) Dilma Rousseff (L) shake hands, in Shanghai, China, on April 13, 2023. (Photo by Ricardo STUCKERT / Presidency of Brazil / AFP) (RICARDO STUCKERT /)

“Today a country needs to run after the dollar when it could export in its own currency (…) Why can’t a bank like the BRICS have a currency that can finance the trade relationship between Brazil and China, between Brazil and other BRICS countries?”, he added.

The president also launched harsh questions against the International Monetary Fundalluding to accusations that the institution based in Washington imposes draconian cuts to public spending in countries in difficulties such as Argentina in exchange for loans.

“No bank can be suffocating the economies of countries as the IMF is doing now in Argentina or as they did with Brazil for so long and with all third world countries“, he claimed.

“No ruler can work with a knife to his throat because (his country) has debts”.

“Brazil back”

Since his return to power on January 1, the leftist leader seeks to relocate Brazil “in the new world geopolitics” and leave behind the isolationism of his predecessor, the far-right Jair Bolsonaro.

On Friday he will meet his counterpart Xi Jinping in Beijing, after having traveled to Washington in February and Argentina in January. The visit to China was scheduled for March 25-31, but she had to postpone it due to pneumonia.

“The time when Brazil was absent from major world decisions is now a thing of the past. We are back on the international scene after an inexplicable absence”, he said in his first official act in Shanghaiwhere he arrived on Wednesday night.

“Brazil is back”, he insisted during the act at the BRICS bank.

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economic folder

Lula heads a delegation that includes some 40 political representatives, including nine ministers, state governors and deputies, and a large group of businessmen.

It is the fourth official visit to China for Lula, who is serving his third term as president, after the two he served from 2003 to 2010.

After his first visit in 2004, the volume of trade between the two economies grew 21 times, according to the Brazilian Presidency.

In 2022, the Asian giant imported a value of more than 89.7 billion dollars, especially soybeans and minerals, and exported an amount of 60.7 billion, according to figures from the Brazilian government.

The first day in Shanghai had a particularly economic component with a visit to a research center for Huawei.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva testing a virtual reality headset at the Huawei Research and Development Center in Shanghai, China, on April 13, 2023. (Photo by Ricardo STUCKERT / Brazilian Presidency / AFP) (RICHARD STUCKERT /)

The president of Huawei, liang huaguided Lula through an exhibition that showcased the firm’s technological advances and its extensive presence in Brazil, a contrast to USAwhich prohibits their companies from doing business with the Chinese company.

Lula tweeted that he had been offered a presentation on the 5G and advances in telemedicine, education and connectivity, a “very strong investment in research and education“, considered.

Mediation in Ukraine

On Friday in Beijing, Lula and Xi must address the conflict of Ukraine.

The two countries have in common the fact that they have not imposed sanctions on Russiaand hope to play a mediating role.

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Last week, the leftist leader noted that Ukraine “can’t want it all” and suggested that he might have to cede the territory of the peninsula of crimeawhose annexation in 2014 by Moscow is not recognized by kyiv.

The spokesman for Ukrainian diplomacy, Oleg Nikolenkoreplied that there is no reason to “abandon a single centimeter of Ukrainian territory”, but thanked “the efforts of the Brazilian president to find a way to stop the Russian aggression”.

Lula proposes forming a group of countries to work on a negotiated solution to the conflict caused by the Russian invasion. Upon their return from China, that group will be “createdhe promised.

Source: Elcomercio