How can the IT industry be impacted with the US 50% rates?

The measure announced on July 9, 2025, which establishes a 50% of Brazilian products imported by, effective from August 1, created a climate of tension in bilateral trade. In addition to the direct impact on exports, Brazil has reacted with its economic reciprocity law, making room for counter-meddles that affect both importers and consumers of American products and services in Brazil. This whole scenario can also impact companies and professionals in the Information Technology Sector (IT) mainly from Brazil.

So check out the 15 possible impacts on products and services:

1. Digital Services Tariffs

• Research via section 301 may result in the taxation of Brazilian Saas and APIs in the US.
• Example: An ERP or any other Brazilian software sold in the US may be charged up to 50% additional.

2. Increased costs in cloud infrastructure

• Tariff also falls on hardware used by Big Techs, impacting prices.
• Example: AWS/Azure invoices can rise between 5–10% for Brazilian startups.

3. Failures in the National Supply Chain due to reciprocity

• Hardware import uncertainties can delay releases on data centers.
• Example: Migration to a new Azure region can be postponed due to lack of servers.

4. Fall in demand for digital migrations or services

• Sectors impacted by tariffs (Agro, Industry) tend to brake IT projects.
• Example: Factory cancels migration to the cloud due to increased costs.

5. Migration to neutral regions and data sovereignty

• To mitigate risks, companies may choose to host data in regions outside the US (Europe, Latin America), although this increases latency and transfer cost.
• Example: one and‑Commerce migrates your hosting to a Data Center in Lisbon or Santiago instead of São Paulo.

6. Increased contractual complexity

• Contracts will be subject to tariff clauses and currency hedge.
• Example: Annual AWS support should include automatic review in case of tariff.

7. Reciprocal retaliation via reciprocity

• Brazil can impose 50% rates on American imports of SaaS, hardware and platforms.
• Example: Office 365, AWS, Azure and Salesforce products can get more expensive in Brazil

8. Increased costs for Brazilian companies that use US services

• Brazilian companies that hire American digital software, platforms and services can pay more due to the possible application of reciprocity rates in Brazil.
• This goes for both management tools, marketing, CRM and cloud services.
• Example: A medical clinic that uses the American Calendly online scheduling system can see its annual cost climb significantly if this service becomes charged in Brazil.

9. Reduction of national IT competitiveness

• Brazilian startups are at operational disadvantage against American competitors.
• Example: Brazilian SaaS loses customers in the US for price increase via tariff.

10. Pressure for data sovereignty and compliance

• With tariffs and regulatory risks, the demand for local solutions grows.
• Example: Companies migrate data to local clouds or multicloud Sank to avoid restrictions.

11. Reduction in hiring by American companies

• With tariffs and instability, US companies can avoid hiring Brazilian professionals.
• Preference can migrate to professionals from countries without commercial barriers.
• Example: A Brazilian Full-Stack Programmer fails to close a contract with an American company that opts for a Colombian professional to avoid legal risks.

12. Fall in service export opportunities

• Freelancers and small IT consulting that render services abroad tend to lose customers.
• International platforms can restrict the offer of services from Brazil.
• Example: A Brazilian UX/UI company has its prices undervalued in the US due to the imposed fare, losing interface projects for Asian competitors.

13. Pressure for Rehabilification and Geopolitical Adaptation

• Professionals will need to understand about digital sovereignty, hybrid networks and regional compliance.
• The technical training will be accompanied by a new demand in soft skills geopolitical.
• Example: A solution architect, or Data Protection Officer (DPO) needs to learn about GDPR, LPDP, Pipeda, Cloud Act, and multi -region diversification strategies to maintain employability.

14. Greater complexity in international projects

• Projects involving US infrastructure and services will have more sensitive planning.
• IT professionals will have to include tax, tariff and currency analysis in technical proposals.
• Example: A data engineer is required to redesign a pipeline architecture because of the impact of the tariff on American cloud storage.

15. Difficulty accessing courses, tools and certifications

• American teaching and licensing platforms can pass tariff costs to Brazilian users.
• Technical training can become more expensive or limited.
• Example: A cybersecurity professional sees the value of the official course of Compstia increase 40% in Brazil because of the new reciprocal tariffs and exchange rate variation.

Specialist answers:

For Michel Souza, marketing manager of the National Association of Data Privacy Professionals (Apdados), the highest impact of rates on digital services, can be Decreased values passed on by social networks to influencers and companies that depend on the monetization of these platforms. This can trigger three paths:

a) Algorithmic limitation

• Platforms can reduce the global visibility of Brazilian content, especially in the United States.
• This occurs as a way to avoid financial exposure to creators who would generate extra costs due to tariffs.

Example: An influencer or company with good performance in Brazil sees their views fall in the US because the Youtube algorithm prioritizes creators of countries without commercial barriers.

b) Cut on financial transfers

• With increasing tariff load on platforms, big techs may choose to reduce the amount passed on by viewing, engagement or monetization.
• This directly affects CPM (cost per thousand impressions) and direct and indirect gains with ads.

Example: A video that once generated $ 10 out of every thousand views, generates $ 6, impacting the Creator’s monthly revenue.

c) local tariff retention by reciprocity

• The Brazilian government can apply 50% rates on the amount received by Brazilian creators as a form of retaliation for US measurement.
• This retention would be applied to payment from US companies, dramatically reducing net revenue.

Example: A creator who receives $ 10,000 monthly from Youtube now receives only $ 5,000, after retention of reciprocity tariff imposed in Brazil.

The 50% tariff imposed by the US, coupled with the counter-legisates provided for by the Brazilian Reciprocity Law, have a ripple effect that has been achieved from IT exporters to final consumers of American software and services in Brazil. Effects include increased costs, delays, contractual review and strategic infrastructure displacement.

To face this turbulent scenario, IT companies and professionals must adopt robust contracts, providers diversification, strategic geographical planning and search for digital sovereignty. Want to deepen the subject, have any questions, comment or want to share your experience on this topic? Write for me in Instagram: .

*This text does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the young Pan.