BRASILIA (Xinhua) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday that he outright rejected a U.S. proposal seeking priority access to Brazil’s critical minerals, without even waiting for the negotiations to begin.
In an interview with radio network Radio Itatiaia, Lula said that the terms proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration were “unacceptable,” and that the document was consigned to the Brazilian administration’s “dead files.”
“It was the first communication we received, and we rejected it. We didn’t even discuss the document, because it was unacceptable for a country to have priority over our nation’s mineral wealth,” he said.
Under the proposal, Washington reportedly sought, among other things, advance notice of the sale of Brazil’s strategic mineral assets before deals were finalized, as well as priority access for U.S. companies.
Lula noted the exploration, processing and industrialization of Brazilian mineral resources must remain subject to rules established by the South American country itself.
According to the Brazilian president, his government’s strategy encourages the establishment of processing and manufacturing stages in Brazil that add value to minerals prior to export.
“We now want to extract here and sell the finished product here in order to create quality jobs and develop production within Brazil,” he said.
This policy is not intended to block foreign capital, but to encourage foreign companies to integrate into a supply chain that keeps the processing and manufacturing stages, and a larger share of the added value, inside Brazil, “so that we export value-added goods rather than raw materials,” he stressed.
He dismissed the possibility of revisiting the terms presented by Washington in 2025, describing the document as “obsolete.”
On Wednesday, Lula signed a law establishing the National Policy on Critical and Strategic Minerals, and creating the National Council for the Industrialization of Critical and Strategic Minerals, which is linked to the President’s Office.