On July 15, 2026, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) announced that, pursuant to Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974, it was imposing a 25% tariff on certain imports of Brazilian goods. The announcement came at the direction of President Donald Trump following an investigation and determination by the USTR that certain Brazilian measures related to: (i) digital trade and electronic payment services; (ii) unfair preferential tariffs; (iii) anti-corruption interference; (iv) intellectual property protection; (v) ethanol market access; and (vi) illegal deforestation “are unreasonable and burden or restrict the commerce of American farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters.”
The Federal Register Notice of Action states that this additional duty is applicable to all imports of Brazil entered into the United States for consumption, or withdrawn from warehouse for consumption, on or after 12:01 EDT on July 22, 2026. These additional tariffs do not apply to informational materials, donations, accompanied baggage, all articles and parts of articles subject to tariffs under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, and certain products identified by their Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) subheading in Annex I and II to the Notice of Action.
USTR Jamieson Greer stated that “[e]xtensive negotiations with Brazil over the past year have not resolved these issues, but we remain open to continuing negotiations with Brazil to bring about long-needed changes to the problems identified in this investigation.”
For additional background on this Section 301 investigation, please see SmarTrade Updates of July 16, 2025 and June 4, 2026.