The Executive Order (EO) issued by the Trump administration on Friday, the 14th, changed certain tariffs applied, explains Welber Barral, former Secretary of Foreign Trade at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (MDIC) and partner at Barral Parente Pinheiro Advogado.
To this end, he continues, yesterday’s executive order amended Annex II of Executive Order 4257, which established exceptions to the application of a 10% “reciprocal tariff” on April 2 of this year.
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According to the former MDIC secretary, President Trump, to make this decision, considered negotiations, internal demand, production capacity, among other things. This same Annex had already been amended by EO 14346, of September 5, 2025. In other words, an updated version was attached to yesterday’s EO.
“This caused confusion among exporters, who read the Annex as exempting products in Annex II from all tariffs imposed on foreign exporters”, notes Barral, adding that in reality what was done by the White House was the revocation of the 10% tariff for products listed in yesterday’s Annex II, and for others that had already been excepted in previous EOs.
Therefore, additional tariffs against specific countries, based on other EOs, even if the basis is also IEEPA, an extraordinary mechanism used by Trump in his tariffs, remain in force.
In the case of Brazil, 40% of EO 14323 of July 30, 2025; in the case of India, the 25% of EO 14326 of July 31 and a further 25% of EO 14329 of August 6, 2025 due to the import of Russian oil.
“In these specific EOs, there are annexes that exclude products subject to the indicated tariff, but which may be affected by tariffs from other EOs. Furthermore, Annex III of EO 14346 of September 5th provides for adjustments for aligned partners, that is, the tariff reduction for a series of products as long as the Secretary of Commerce and the USTR determine that a reciprocal trade agreement has been concluded”, details the partner at Barral Parente Pinheiro Advogado
Another observation to be made, according to the former secretary, is that several products are excluded from the Annexes, but are subject to tariffs derived from Section 232 investigations, as is the case with steel, aluminum, copper, wood and their derivatives. There are situations in which the percentage of these inputs in the final imported product also leads to a specific tariff.
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Finally, says Barral, in several cases there is also an accumulation of tariffs (stacking), which can occur with pre-existing tariffs (MFN), or tariffs derived from Section 301, especially against products from China or trade defense measures, anti-dumping, compensatory or safeguard measures.
“There are still specific situations for free trade agreements, partial commercial agreements being signed now, products with special rules under quotas, products with controversial tariff classification, and customs protests to guarantee reimbursement due to reclassification or a future court decision. It is not a simple year for exporters. And the prospects for 2026 are not rosy either”, warned the expert.
