The United States on Monday proposed imposing 25 per cent tariffs on most imports from Brazil, escalating a year-long trade probe into Latin America’s largest economy while sparing two of its most valuable exports to the American market.
In a determination released by the US Trade Representative, Ambassador Jamieson Greer found Brazil’s policies on digital trade, electronic payments, preferential tariffs with Mexico and India, anti-corruption enforcement, intellectual property, ethanol market access and illegal deforestation to be unreasonable and a burden on US commerce.
But the proposed action carries notable carve-outs. Brazilian beef and wood pulp — together among the largest commodity flows between the two countries — are excluded from the new duties under an annex to the Federal Register notice. The existing US tariff-rate quota for Brazilian beef will remain in place, leaving the bulk of Brazil’s lean-trim cattle exports to American grinders undisturbed.
The exclusions effectively preserve trade patterns in two sectors where US processors rely on Brazilian inputs. Tissue and packaging mills in the southern US source bleached eucalyptus pulp from Brazil at volumes that cannot be quickly replaced from other origins. American beef plants blend imported lean trim with domestic fatty trim to produce ground beef, a flow that has run at or near quota for several years.
Greer said engagement with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s government had accelerated in recent weeks, with “substantial differences” still on the table.
The investigation, launched on President Donald Trump’s direction in July 2025, drew testimony from more than 30 witnesses and nearly 300 written submissions. USTR will hold a public hearing on 6 July, with written comments due 1 July and hearing requests by 22 June. The statutory deadline for the Trade Representative to take responsive action falls on 15 July — one year to the day after the investigation opened.
Brasília has not yet issued a formal response. Lula’s government has previously rejected the framing of the probe, particularly the inclusion of illegal deforestation, which Brazilian officials have characterised as an environmental matter rather than a trade dispute.
The 25 per cent headline rate, if finalised, would rank among the most aggressive Section 301 actions taken against a major US trading partner since the China tariffs of 2018.