Brazil’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva , has slammed the sweeping tariffs imposed by the United States on his country as “misguided” and “illogical”, while also dismissing Washington’s criticism over the conviction of the country’s former leader, Jair Bolsonaro, on coup charges.

The comments, published in an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday, came as Bolsonaro made his first public appearance since last week’s conviction for a hospital visit.

In his essay, Lula said he wanted to establish “an open and frank dialogue” with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, over his administration’s decision to impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian products.

He noted that the US has a trade surplus with Brazil, accumulating a surplus of $410bn in trade over the past 15 years, making it

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