Flávio's proposal to postpone tariffs until after the elections is unacceptable, says Caiado

"You see failures of a candidate - and with all due respect to him, Flávio - in also putting himself in a session in the United States and saying to postpone tariffs after the election", said Caiado at an event of the National Confederation of Commerce, in Brasília. "This is unacceptable. You have to be part of a game to know the weight and significance of the country."

"This has been an unfortunate attitude on the part of pre-candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, as this issue should not only be dealt with in the middle of the electoral campaign", stated Caiado later, in conversation with journalists. "We would be validating Lula's irresponsible populism [...] with the single vision of October 4th."

Flávio argued, in a document sent to the USTR (Office of the US Trade Representative), that last year's tariff was used politically by the Lula (PT) government and asked that the application of new taxes be postponed, at least, until after the elections in order to avoid a new political bonus for the president.

"The proposed tariffs would give the current Brazilian government exactly the political victory it has been seeking, at the same time that they would punish the American economy and the Brazilians themselves who defend a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States," said Flávio, PL's pre-candidate for President.

After sending this dossier, Flávio participated, on Tuesday (7), in a public hearing promoted by the USTR - which is the body responsible for commercial investigations that proposed new tariffs of 37.5% on Brazilian exports - and repeated the argument, saying that now would be the worst time to implement new rates.

In his speech at the CNC event, Ronaldo Caiado also criticized what would be an ideological stance of the Brazilian chancellery, the Itamaraty, and said that Brazil is under simultaneous pressure from the USA, China and Europe - citing European regulatory barriers, Chinese quotas and American tariffs.

"Today the Americans threaten us with a 25% [tariff] under section 301. [With] the European Union, we just made the [EU-Mercosur] agreement and they said: 'we are seeing the use of antibiotics outside of standards, we will cancel meat imports'", he stated. "Then China comes and says: 'You've already reached the [meat] quota. From now on you have to pay 55% plus 12.5%."

'IF YOU VOTE FOR FLÁVIO, YOU WILL RE-ELECT LULA', SAYS CAIADO

Asked by journalists about the effects of the "Dark Horse" case on the electoral campaign, Caiado replied that the "great watershed" capable of enabling candidates to debate with the PT will be "moral conduct, involvement in corruption".

"Everyone knows, many still don't want to confess: If you vote for Flávio, you will re-elect Lula", said the former governor. "His [Flávio] candidacy is being constructed as the candidacy that the PT wants."

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