After late-July U.S. tariffs (25% plus a 12.5% “forced labor” levy; combined ~37.5% on nearly half of Brazil’s U.S. exports), Lula reversed Brasília’s old Mercosur brake on China—talking up a China deal, minerals, satellites, visas—while China is already Brazil’s top partner (~$188bn) and Mercosur pushes Singapore, India, Japan, and Canada.

The columnist credits Deng’s 1978 opening, not Maoist ideology, for China’s rise (“black or white cat”) and Ireland’s boom to less state weight—not party labels—and slams attributing Argentina’s pain to “free markets” when Milei’s relative state/tax burden grew as the private sector shrank.

Domestic payoff: Lula polls above 40% vs. a fading Flávio Bolsonaro (Milei/Netanyahu optics); Milei may still veto Mercosur–China. The author’s corollary: treat politicians’ isms as speech and judge the size of the state.

In a column – Brasilia makes friends with Beijing – published in none other than one of the most traditional and historic pro-free market think tanks in the world, the Foundation For Economic Education, Jake Scott says that, at the end of July, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, from Brazil, and Xi Jinping, from China, spoke for more than an hour. 

The two governments then announced their intention to accelerate a long-stalled China-Mercosur trade deal. In parallel, there are plans to deepen cooperation in the processing of satellites and critical minerals and waive short-stay visa requirements. China is already Brazil’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade valued at $188 billion, and a deal could satisfy Brazil’s other strategic interests, such as expanding agricultural access.

Free trade should be established unilaterally by each country without the need for bureaucratic agreements, even so this is an important change for Brazil. For years, it was Brasilia that led all resistance within Mercosur to this type of agreement that partially freed up trade. The reversal was shocking and sudden, just two weeks after the........

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