STRENGTHENING AMERICA’S COMPETITIVENESS: Today, at the direction of President Trump, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) concludes its Section 301 Investigation of Brazil’s Unreasonable Acts, Policies, and Practices by imposing a 25% tariff on certain imports from Brazil. This action follows a year-long investigation into Brazil that determined Brazil’s acts, policies, and practices to be unreasonable and burden or restrict U.S. commerce pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. This action follows extensive efforts since April of 2025 to negotiate a solution to the unfair trading practices that harm American workers and companies. Despite multiple negotiating rounds and proposals by the United States, Brazil has continued its harmful practices and has not agreed to resolve these long-standing issues.
These practices, which are set forth below, range from disparate tariff treatment for U.S. ethanol and lack of intellectual property protections and enforcement to the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest and barriers to fair digital trade.
- By imposing a 25% tariff on certain goods of Brazil, President Trump is leveling the playing field with Brazil to defend American farmers, workers, innovators, and businesses from Brazil’s unfair trading practices while creating a pathway to resolve these issues
- The Trump Administration remains committed to safeguarding U.S. companies from coercion, and fighting for American farmers and workers.
COMBATING UNFAIR TRADE PRACTICES: For decades, Brazil’s unreasonable acts, policies, and practices have undercut the competitiveness of American farmers, workers, innovators, and businesses, restricting access to Brazil’s market of over 210 million consumers. Unfortunately, these issues are not new and have been the frequent subject of discussions and negotiations with Brazilian officials over the years. Such acts, policies, and practices include:
- Digital Trade: Brazilian courts have issued secret orders directing U.S. technology companies, including X, Meta, and Google, to remove certain political content and to suspend accounts belonging to U.S. residents, as well as prohibiting the platforms from disclosing these orders to profile owners. Brazilian courts have also subjected U.S. technology companies to financial liability for failing to comply with these orders by imposing significant fines for non-compliance; restricting their access to assets, accounts, and payment processing systems in Brazil; and in at least one case, by shutting down a site altogether.
- Electronic Payment Services: Brazil has unfairly disadvantaged U.S. companies engaged in competing electronic payment services, including by policies that favor its national champion, Pix.
- Unfair, Preferential Tariffs: Brazil provides selective lower, preferential treatment on over a thousand tariff lines for Mexico and hundreds of tariff lines for India at tariff rates that are between 10 and 100 percent lower than Brazil’s most-favored-nation (MFN) rate, which applies to U.S. exports in those same sectors and unfairly disadvantages U.S. workers and producers.
- Anti-Corruption Enforcement: In 2025, Brazil scored 35 out of 100 on the Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI). Corruption in Brazil is not new, but with its recent actions, Brazil has moved farther away from global norms relating to fighting bribery and corruption, creating a disadvantage for American companies that follow the rules.
- Intellectual Property Protection: Since 2007, Brazil has been listed on the Watch List in USTR’s Special 301 Report, which means that Brazil denies adequate and effective intellectual property protections or fair and equitable market access to U.S. persons who rely on intellectual property.
- Ethanol Market Access: Brazil has discontinued its previously balanced tariff treatment and failed to reciprocate favorable U.S. tariff treatment of ethanol from Brazil.
- Imports of U.S. ethanol into Brazil have generally declined since Brazil reinstated its tariff on ethanol. In 2025, U.S. exports to Brazil totaled $96 million, an 87% decrease from the peak export value of $761 million in of 2018.
- Illegal Deforestation: Despite having a legal framework for combatting illegal deforestation, Brazil has historically failed to effectively enforce this legal framework, and illegal deforestation persists to the detriment of the U.S. industry.
ELIMINATING UNFAIR TRADING PRACTICES THROUGH TARGETED ACTION:
- The 25% tariff will apply to most imports from Brazil.
- The following goods are not covered by today’s action:
- Informational materials, donations, and accompanied baggage;
- All articles and parts of articles subject to section 232 tariffs; and
- Certain products which include (i) raw materials that if subject to the proposed additional tariffs could lead to the unavailability of domestic supply; (ii) products that could cause economy-wide disruptions if subject to the proposed additional tariffs; (iii) certain products that cannot be grown or produced in sufficient quantities in the United States or obtained from other sources; and (iv) articles for which additional tariffs may not contribute substantially to the elimination of Brazil's acts, policies, and practices described above.
- To ensure the effectiveness of this Section 301 action, including by encouraging Brazil to address the practices at issue, the tariff will not cover certain imports, including but not limited to beef, orange juice, aircraft and aircraft parts, and energy products. A full coverage list can be found in the Federal Register Notice.
ADVANCING AMERICA FIRST TRADE POLICY: Since Day One, USTR has been working to execute President Trump’s America First Trade Policy to end the unfair and non-reciprocal trading practices by other countries, reshore jobs, spur investment, and deliver tangible wins for American farmers, workers, innovators, and businesses.
- President Trump continues to use tariffs and trade deals to optimize global trade, addressing trade barriers abroad while strengthening domestic manufacturing at home.
- Today’s action will reverse decades of non-reciprocal trading practices to create fairer trade with Brazil and boost America’s competitiveness.
