The US government proposed, in a document released on Monday night (1st), new tariffs of 25% on all Brazilian imports, with the exception of goods that are classified as “subject to national security tariffs”.
Among the main reasons for the , the USTR (Office of the United States Trade Representative) highlights that the trade agreements signed by Brazil with India and Mexico harm American exporters and create a competitive disadvantage for United States products in the Brazilian market.
According to the agency, the Brazilian government grants preferential tariff treatment to Mexican and Indian products in sectors in which the United States is also considered highly competitive.
According to the USTR, it maintains partial scope preferential trade agreements with India and Mexico that cover areas such as agriculture, the automotive industry, chemicals, minerals and machinery.
The document states that tariffs charged on hundreds of Mexican and Indian products are between 10% and 100% lower than those applied to American products in the same sectors.
“The specific sectors covered by Brazil’s preferential trade agreements with Mexico and India are those in which the United States is also globally competitive and actively exports to Brazil,” says the text.
For the American government, this differentiated treatment especially harms the access of US products to the Brazilian market.
Drop in US participation
The USTR cites trade data to support the thesis that the agreements favored India and Mexico to the detriment of the United States.
According to the agency, the share of Mexican products in Brazilian imports of the categories covered by the bilateral agreement increased from 1.7% in 1998 to 3.3% in 2023. In the same period, the share of American products fell from 22% to 11%.
In the case of India, the share of Brazilian imports of products covered by the trade agreement rose from 3.2% in 2004 to 6.7% in 2024. The United States’ share fell to 8.2%.
The document itself recognizes that these changes cannot be attributed exclusively to trade agreements, but states that they were an important factor in the loss of participation by American exporters.
