Trump's change of heart on Lula may be thanks to Brazilian beef tycoon

By Luciana Magalhaes and Bernardo Caram

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -A co-owner of Brazilian meatpacking giant JBS met privately with U.S. President Donald Trump about three weeks before Trump extended a surprise olive branch to Brazil's president in his United Nations speech on Tuesday, three people with knowledge of the encounter told Reuters.

That meeting helped pave the way for Trump to take a more favorable tone towards Lula at the U.N., two of the sources said.

On Tuesday, Trump praised Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, despite months of sparring between the two leaders over what the White House has called a "witch hunt" in Brazil against a Trump ally. 

"We had a good talk, and we agreed to meet next week," Trump said. "At least for about 39 seconds, we had excellent chemistry," he added.

In July, the White House imposed 50% tariffs on most Brazilian imports, including meat, potentially jarring the supply chain for food companies including JBS and its subsidiary Pilgrim's Pride.

It was in the following weeks that JBS co-owner Joesley Batista managed to set up a meeting with Trump, first reported by newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo.

JBS declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.     

According to one of the people with knowledge of the conversation, Batista told Trump that the tariffs he had imposed on Brazilian products were making beef too expensive for Americans. 

The levies were cited by the White House as retaliation against what Trump believed to be an unfair persecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing firebrand who this month was convicted of plotting a coup to remain in power after he lost the 2022 election.

OTHER MEETINGS

JBS became a publicly traded company in the United States in June, a move into the American market that added exposure for the company to White House policy.

Pilgrim's Pride, its poultry producer subsidiary, gave a $5 million donation to the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee, saying it had a "long bipartisan history of participating in the civic process."

Joesley and his brother Wesley Batista also have been seen with Lula at public events several times. Loans from Brazil's development bank to JBS under a previous Lula administration helped it grow into the world's biggest meatpacker. 

The Batistas later admitted to bribing 1,800 politicians as part of a sprawling anti-corruption probe.

JBS has said that meetings with public officials adhere to its code of conduct.

Other business leaders from Brazil have been meeting with Trump administration officials in recent weeks to lobby for lower tariffs.

Embraer Chief Executive Francisco Gomes Neto told Reuters earlier this month that he was trying to arrange meetings to discuss tariffs on the planemaker's products.

The company scored a victory when the White House excluded plane parts from the 50% levies imposed on most Brazilian goods. But 10% tariffs still apply to Embraer's products.

Neither Brazil nor U.S. officials have shared any further details about a possible Trump-Lula meeting next week.

But Lula told reporters in New York on Wednesday that he was willing to meet with Trump in person, and that they would put "everything on the table." 

"What once seemed impossible stopped being impossible and actually happened," Lula said.

(Reporting by Luciana Magalhaes in Sao Paulo and Bernardo Caram in Brasilia; additional reporting by Gabriel Araujo in Sao Paulo; editing by Manuela Andreoni, Christian Plumb and Rosalba O'Brien)