Bush to host Brazilian president this week

Posted on Wed, Jun. 18, 2003 By KEVIN G. HALL AND DUNE LAWRENCE The Miami Herald-Knight Ridder News Service

BRASILIA - Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva will visit the White House on Friday for the second time in seven months, a sign of the growing importance of South America's largest economy and the international stature of its leftist leader.

Da Silva, a former machinist, labor leader and union organizer, initially frightened Wall Street and the White House with fiery populist campaign rhetoric. But since taking office Jan. 1, da Silva -- known affectionately to Brazilians as Lula -- has pursued his social agenda without challenging the free-market policies that brought Brazil billions in foreign investment in the 1990s.

By holding the line, Brazil has remained one of the most attractive markets for international investors, and da Silva arrives in Washington with a strong hand, even as much of Latin America is in an economic crisis. He also has a reputation for charm.

''Lula has a record of being quite effective in these personal appearances, and he still has an aura about him,'' said Thomas Skidmore, a longtime Brazil expert at Brown University's Watson Institute of International Affairs in Providence, R.I. ``It's pretty sensational that a former metal worker is flying around the world to negotiate with the strongest country in the universe.''

U.S. and Brazilian diplomats expect the two leaders to disagree sharply on some issues but will seek to highlight areas of agreement. As Celso Amorim, Brazil's foreign minister, said last week in Washington, ``A mature relation means that you explore to the maximum the points of convergence, you try to limit the points of difference and you respect the diversity.''

Bush and da Silva differ on Cuba and on U.S. military involvement in fighting drug-funded Marxist guerrillas in neighboring Colombia. They also differ on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which Brazil opposed.

More important, da Silva wants Bush to drop tariffs on Brazilian steel, citrus and other agricultural exports as a condition for Brazil's assent to a hemispheric free-trade zone by 2005. Brazil has been reluctant to endorse the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas, which would reduce tariffs and barriers to trade after the year 2005.

Brazil insisted on several modifications to the official agenda for the Washington visit, a top Brazilian foreign service officer told Knight Ridder.

One stipulation was adding an item called ''fighting protectionism'' to protest what Brazil complains is a U.S. trade policy that unfairly keeps out its exports.

The United States maintains that is not so, citing two-way trade that grew from $15.6 billion in 1994 to almost $26 billion last year.

The Brazilian official said the two countries' representatives expect to address ''hot spots,'' including ways to resolve Venezuela's political crisis, how to best promote democracy in Cuba and how to help Argentina out of its deep economic crisis.