The Brazilian President, Lula da Silva, accused the United States of lying by using deforestation as justification to impose new tariffs on Brazilian products and promised to challenge the accusations with official data.
During an event at the headquarters of the Organization of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty (OTCA) this Thursday in BrasÃlia, Lula highlighted preliminary figures pointing to a 37.5% reduction in deforestation alerts in the Amazon and 8.2% in the Cerrado.
The data released by the Brazilian government compare the periods August to May ending in 2025 and 2026 and come from the Deter system used for real-time monitoring and support of enforcement actions.
Only in May did alerts fall 61.4% in the Amazon and 12.2% in the Cerrado compared with the same month of the previous year, according to official figures.
Lula said that the numbers will be forwarded to the U.S. Trade Representative, Jamieson Greer, who proposed last week to raise tariffs on Brazilian products.
The aim is to counter the arguments presented by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) which, among other points, contends that Brazil failed to effectively implement the legal framework to combat illegal deforestation.
“We are going to take these data, send them to the U.S. trade official who raises deforestation as a justification to punish Brazil with a higher tariff,” he declared.
The Brazilian president stated that the U.S. government had already presented false allegations when justifying previous tariff measures against Brazil.
“They lied the first time they taxed Brazil by 50%, saying there was a trade deficit. We proved they had a very high surplus over 15 years, and now with this matter they spoke about deforestation,” he said.
In a speech marked by criticisms of the American stance, Lula said he wanted to compare the environmental and labor policies of the two countries.
“When we are negotiating with someone who has no baseline for negotiation, who does not behave in a civilized manner, we will have to make comparisons,” he declared.
In a direct message to U.S. President Donald Trump, he stated that the White House chief “was not elected to be the emperor of the world”.
“There is no point telling me you have the fastest planes in the world; I do not want war. My war is narrative. My war is to prove that we are right and you are wrong,” he added.
The proposal for new American tariffs on Brazilian products still depends on a decision by Trump while the Brazilian government seeks to negotiate a solution to avoid the measures.
The Brazilian president argued that the commitment to achieving zero deforestation by 2030 results from a decision of his government and not from international impositions.
“He [Trump] does not know the work we do to make deforestation reach zero deforestation by 2030. This is not a decision of any COP, not a decision of the UN, this is a decision of our Government,” he said.
Lula insisted that Brazil intends to maintain a relationship based on dialogue and mutual development by saying that the country “does not want a fight, (…) wants civilization, trade and development for both countries”.
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, João Paulo Capobianco, said that the new indicators dismantle the accusations made by the United States about deforestation in the Amazon.
The release of the data, he said, is part of the government’s routine and does not represent a specific response to Washington although the information is used in bilateral negotiations.
“We are presenting clearly: Brazil is not promoting deforestation or exporting illegal timber! We were in the U.S., we detailed the data and yet this unjust accusation against us came,” said the minister.
