Obama introduces Lula by praising his progressive policies.
1:05 Lula in turn, starts by stressing the importance of trade
between the countries. He goes down the list:
- strengthen our nations’ trade,
- common goals,
- biofuels,
- historic opportunity to improve the relations with Latin America.
- Doha round of negotiations (on free trade and tarriffs)
Obama’s talking progressive policies, Lula is talking about free
trade and business.
Question on the economic crisis and China’s debt holdings:
Obama “the stability of our economic system and our
political system is extraordinary”
Lula: “The worse the situation. the worse the
investment gets on developing countries. This is the problem we’re
facing. Brazil is the least affected country but we also have the
possibility to get out of the crisis…But the fact is that money has
vanished and if we don’t make credit supply flow again, we’ll be
hurting.”
Question in Portuguese on energy policy:
Brazilians don’t understand how a clean fuel can not reach US markets
because of US tarriffs [which amount to 54 cents a gallon but I
need to check that]
Obama: “We have a lot to learn from Brazil on clean
energy development, change ideas and technology. The issue of Brazilian
ethanol has been a source of tension; it’s not going to change
overnight…over time this source of tension can get resolved.”
Lula 1:15PM: “This is the 1st meeting that we’ve had.
My answer is your question: I can understand the concern with carbon
emissions and climate change. Tony Blair, Sarkozy, former Pres. Bush,
have all discussed this. Slowly the countries will be convinced and
slowly other countries will join the biofuel effort. I have talked to
President Obama and things will move forward as people start changing.
Thank God that Brazil has had for years control of this technology, and
I’ll show Pres. Obama a flex-fuel vehicle we have developed.”
Obama then says we have a flex fuel vehicle but not
the right gas station.
Lula ate Obama’s lunch on this answer.
1:20PM Question on g-20:
Obama goes into a totally defensive answer questioning
the reporter’s sources and then goes on to talk about having an
international body to account for amount of stimulus every country is
doing so governments can keep track. An absurd answer if there ever was
one. Then “we’re going to make sure that the systemic reasons of this
crisis won’t happen again.”
I hope Obama did not point to Lula when he mentioned “very poor
countries.”
Lula: “We presidents all talk too much.” Whoot! “We
can not afford to go to [the G20] looking for someone to blame. We need
to find the answers. We must have a special credit supply to the
poorest countries and we also need to strenghten international
institutions like the IMF, World Bank. We’re on a large ship, and it’s
leaking. Two key words: re establish and restore credit in the world,
re establish and restore confidence. We must have confidence in
democracy. This crisis is an extraordinary opportunity to prove the
goals that elected us: that we are capable to deal with major
issues….The bottom line is that we need is to create jobs, to create
demand and consumption, and to generate development, so we’re very
optimistic. We have to make joint decisions.”
1:23PM Question in Portuguese on dangers of
protectionism and will the US purchase Brazilian goods.
Obama: Will have cabinet member check on that. “The US
needs to recognize the dangers of a trade war. It’s important to
understand that US businesses will benefit from our exports… Our goal
is to at least not go backwards. The “Buy American” provision will not
violate WTO rules. It may be difficult to finalize a host of trade
deals in a crisis like this…I’m optimistic we’ll find a way. Job
growth, income growth, won’t build a fence across countries.”
Lula: “Why didn’t we manage to close the [free trade]
deal if there was a minor issue in the way? I believe it was because
there was an election that got in the way. Europe and the US almost
managed to get market access, but two issues, 1 in India and one in the
US, got in the way. Now on the crisis, we might be able to relieve the
developing world in this crisis. The US and Brazil trade $53 billion…
it is clear, for the size of the 2 countries we don’t have much trade
flow. What is the problem? What happens each country wants to sell, and
foreign trade is a two-way street, and we need to strengthen this idea
because protectionism will aggravate the economic crisis…. This is much
more than a practical issue. I hope the US and Brazil can mature their
thinking ahead of the G20 so we can present a joint solution. I’m very
optimistic.”
Obama “I’m very optimistic and I hope to see him in
Brazil.” (no specific date for that) Hopes to go to the beaches in Rio.
Dude!
The impression is that Lula is the pro and Obama the amateur.
Or, as my son, who was also watching said, “Lula cleaned Obama’s clock
when it comes to the quality of the answers.”
Lula was focused and laid out the agenda: strong binds between the
two countries, free trade, doing away with tariffs particularly on
biofuels, job creation, and easing the credit crisis.
Obama just went along for the ride.
I’ll add a photo once one is available.
UPDATE
Welcome, Instapundit readers. You might want to check out this post on why Brazil is
a key country.
Update 2
BBC photo added, and their article is titled, Lula
warns US about protectionism
Ponder that a moment, folks. A socialist warning an American president against
protectionism.
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