A true information war has involved the tire sector in Brazil. While national producers try to prove accusations of dumping on the part of imports coming especially from India, importers complain about the scope of a rule established by the government for agricultural tires, which is being used to block the arrival of tires for trucks, vans, SUVs and even wheelbarrows.
The Department of Commercial Defense, an agency of the Secretariat of Foreign Trade, recently denied the application of an anti-dumping measure on agricultural tires imported from India, a request made by Anip (National Association of the Tire Industry). The decision is still provisional and the investigation will continue.
National manufacturers alleged illegal competitive measures by Indians, but the Secex department concluded that there is no exclusive causal link between Indian imports and the damage suffered by the national industry.
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The drop in sales by Brazilian manufacturers, according to the investigation, was caused by the contraction of the domestic market for agricultural machinery and the drop in exports from the national industry itself, and not just by the entry of Indian tires.
The Brazilian tire industry closed the first quarter of 2026 with a 7% drop in sales in the domestic market, after facing a drop in sales of 5.8% last year. The association attributed the losses to the “massive entry into the country of imported products, often with dumping practices and without meeting environmental targets set out in legislation”.
With the performance, the share of national tires in the replacement market was 31%, compared to 69% of imported tires. In 2019, this proportion was inverse and national manufacturers held a 69% share, recalls ANIP.
“The lack of equal conditions of competition is putting the entire tire production ecosystem in Brazil at risk, which could lead the country to a situation of dependence on the international market, with loss of sovereignty in this strategic sector”, says Rodrigo Navarro, president of the entity.
“We are a predominantly road-based country. Tires are a strategic input and measures need to be taken to defend the industry and suppliers in the country”, adds the executive.
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Importers also complain
At the same time, importers deny that there are unfair practices and point to attempts at market control by companies that produce in Brazil. And they insist that, in the case of tires in the agricultural sector – whose complaints were addressed by Secex – the application of anti-dumping has been carried out indiscriminately in favor of national producers, affecting tires from other segments.
According to Abidip (Brazilian Association of Tire Importers and Distributors), the current rule adopted against China has barred tires from trucks, vans, SUVs and even wheelbarrows from ports.
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The association claims that the rule established by the government for agricultural tires does not delimit products by application to which type of transport vehicle, but by dimensional measurements.
In practice, this would have opened space for subjective interpretations by the Federal Revenue Service. Thus, tires with the same size, but completely different applications, came to be classified as agricultural. “The situation is so absurd that we have a company with a loss of over R$1 million, considering judicial deposits and logistical costs, because truck tires were considered to be from agricultural vehicles, in one of the ports”, says Ricardo Alípio, president of Abidip.
Furthermore, importers also criticize the lack of transparency. Data used to justify China’s anti-dumping, such as production costs, are confidential, accessible only to the government. For the sector, this makes it difficult to contest. “We do not have access to the data. As a result, national agriculture, one of the main drivers of the Brazilian economy, which is going through a terrible moment, may have an increased input cost due to a failure in the conduct of the process”, says Alípio.
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The importers decided to take legal action against the Union to try to prevent tires for purposes other than the agricultural sector from continuing to be blocked at ports.
Another ANIP request was filed last month with the Foreign Trade Chamber requesting an increase in import tariffs on passenger vehicle tires from 25% to 35%. The case does not yet have a trial date.
