Lula asks Obama to ‘quickly’ end cotton ‘fighting’

 Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva asked U.S. President Barack Obama to “quickly” negotiate the end to a trade dispute over cotton subsidies that led him to raise tariffs on over 100 U.S. goods this week.

Lula, during a speech in Cubatao, Sao Paulo, said that Brazil would not have taken retaliatory measures worth $829 million had the U.S. in 2008 signed an accord during the Doha round of global trade talks.

“If the US had been together with Brazil in the Doha round in 2008 we wouldn’t be fighting today,” Lula said.

Acting on a World Trade Organization ruling, Brazil said March 8 it would impose $591 million in tariffs on 102 American goods such as wheat, chewing gum and cosmetics in a bid to force the U.S. to end subsidies to cotton producers.

Brazil’s government also plans to apply sanctions worth an additional $238 million by violating intellectual property rights on U.S.-made movies and medicines, according to an official with direct knowledge of the government’s plans.

Lula, who the U.S President called his ”man” at a Group of 20 summit last year in London, said Brazil imposed trade sanctions to show “comrade Obama” that all countries must be treated fairly on the global trade stage.

“We want to show the U.S. that it doesn’t matter if you are big or small, or how much money you have as a nation,” Lula said. “We all want to be respected and to be treated fairly.”

The Geneva-based WTO ruled in August that Brazil has the right to impose the sanctions because the cotton subsidies violate trade regulations. The amount awarded is the second highest ever by the organization.

Trade Minister Miguel Jorge said yesterday that his government will discuss the dispute with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk next week in an effort to reach a negotiated settlement to the cotton dispute.

The U.S. has 30 days to negotiate a bilateral agreement with Brazil and avoid higher levies, Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said March 3 at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Brasilia.