Notice of Action: Brazil’s Acts, Policies, and Practices Related to Digital Trade and Electronic Payment Services; Unfair, Preferential Tariffs; Anti-Corruption Enforcement; Intellectual Property Protection; Ethanol Market Access; and Illegal Deforestation
Key claim: The USTR, under Section 301 and at the President’s direction, determined Brazil’s digital-trade, tariff, anti-corruption, IP, ethanol, and deforestation practices actionable and is imposing 25 percent tariffs on all imports from Brazil, with certain exemptions.
Abstract
(Notice · Trade Representative, Office of United States) The United States Trade Representative (Trade Representative) has determined under Section 301(b) and Section 304(a) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (Trade Act), that certain of Brazil’s acts, policies, and practices at issue in this investigation are actionable and that action by the United States is appropriate. In accordance with the specific direction of the President, the Trade Representative is taking action by imposing 25 percent tariffs on all imports of Brazil, with certain exemptions.
Why this matters
This escalates the Brazil Section 301 case from a proposed determination into an operative country-wide 25% tariff, one of the broadest Section 301 remedies to date. It sets a precedent for using Section 301 as a bundled instrument covering non-traditional grievances (deforestation, anti-corruption) alongside conventional digital-trade and IP concerns, expanding the tool’s effective scope within the trade & tariffs toolkit.