Brazil, US Make Progress Towards Defining Scope of Potential Trade Deal

Brazilian Minister of Development, Industry, Trade and Services Márcio Elias Rosa said he had a productive meeting with US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of the G20 Trade Ministers' Meeting in Milwaukee.

"We spoke about the possibility of an agreement. We renewed the commitment to having an agreement," Rosa said through an interpreter during an interaction with reporters.

"Greer is interested in building this agreement," he added.

Rosa said the immediate priority would be to establish the boundaries of any potential negotiations and determine which issues would be included.

"In the coming weeks, we are going to define a conceptual scope of such trade agreements, which can talk about tariff or non-tariff issues," he said.

According to Rosa, Brazil has remained open to negotiations and the latest discussions followed direct engagement between the presidents of the two countries after tariffs began affecting Brazil's economy.

The two sides have since resumed talks, including a second face-to-face meeting held during the G20 gathering in Milwaukee, he said.

Rosa said one of the main challenges now would be narrowing down the issues that could be covered by a potential agreement.

"All of you know the difficulties in defining the boundaries or limits. What will be up for negotiation? Otherwise, it will be endless," he said.

"If we were to list all goods and services, it would be months or years," Rosa added.

The minister said negotiators would therefore need to identify specific sectors, establish thresholds and determine the mechanisms that could eventually be incorporated into an agreement.

"Are we going to talk about quotas? Are we going to talk about tariff reduction? Are we going to include safeguards?" Rosa said.

He added that he had seen a willingness from Greer to move the process forward.

"We saw in the face of Ambassador Greer a willingness to do that, and so we will do that. We're closer by the day," Rosa said.

At the same time, Rosa reiterated Brazil's opposition to tariffs being used as tools of coercion or discrimination. He said Brasilia continued to support the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as the framework for establishing universal rules governing international trade.

"The Brazilian government is never away from the negotiation table for one reason. Because Brazil believes in multilateralism," he said.

Brazil and the US have extensive trade ties covering sectors such as agriculture, energy, manufacturing and services. Recent tariff-related tensions have increased pressure on both governments to find a negotiated framework addressing market access and trade barriers.

The Milwaukee meeting took place alongside broader G20 discussions on multilateral trade rules, food security, excess industrial capacity and reform of the WTO, with Brazil continuing to push for stronger universal rules governing global commerce.