25% Section 301 tariff on Brazilian goods takes effect this week

By presidential memorandum of 15 July 2026, published in the Federal Register on 20 July, President Trump directed the United States Trade Representative to impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods of Brazil, with exemptions for products identified in an Annex to the memorandum.¹ The memorandum acts on the Trade Representative’s 1 June 2026 determination — in the Section 301 investigation of Brazil initiated at presidential direction on 15 July 2025 — that “certain of Brazil’s acts, policies, and practices” relating to digital trade and electronic payment services; unfair, preferential tariffs; anti-corruption enforcement; intellectual property protection; ethanol market access; and illegal deforestation “are unreasonable or discriminatory and burden or restrict United States commerce and thus are actionable under section 301(b)(1)” of the Trade Act of 1974, 19 U.S.C. § 2411(b)(1).¹² The Office of the US Trade Representative had proposed the 25 percent action, received more than 360 written comments and heard 77 witnesses at a public hearing on 6-7 July 2026;³ USTR’s implementing Notice of Action, published the same day as the memorandum (91 FR 45516, FR Doc. 2026-14542), applies the 25 percent duty to goods entered for consumption or withdrawn from warehouse on or after 12:01 a.m. eastern time on 22 July 2026, with exemptions structured in Annexes I and II and an exclusion for goods already subject to Section 232 duties.⁴ The exemption annexes track four categories the memorandum enumerates — raw materials whose taxation “could lead to the unavailability of domestic supply,” products that “could cause economy-wide disruptions,” products unavailable in sufficient quantity or at reasonable prices domestically or from other sources, and articles for which tariffs “may not contribute substantially” to eliminating the actionable practices; per the Associated Press and the Notice of Action’s annexes, the exempted products include coffee, beef, oranges and orange juice, and aircraft components, with a second tranche — modifications for patented pharmaceutical articles — taking effect 31 July 2026.¹⁴⁵ Brazil’s government called the tariff unjustifiable and said it would invoke the mechanisms of its economic reciprocity law and pursue World Trade Organization dispute settlement, the Associated Press reported on 16 July.⁵

1. The action is the first tariff remedy of the administration’s post-IEEPA Section 301 track and stands apart from the sixteen-partner structural-overcapacity investigations initiated 11 March 2026 (see Section 301 investigations: three-month procedural status): the Brazil investigation was initiated 15 July 2025 under § 302, proceeded through USTR’s determination of 1 June 2026 (noticed at 91 FR 33854, FR Doc. 2026-11158, published 4 June 2026), and arrives at remedy within the statute’s twelve-month determination architecture at § 2414.¹²⁶ A prior 40 percent IEEPA-based additional tariff on Brazilian goods under Executive Order 14323 — 50 percent cumulative with the 10 percent reciprocal baseline of EO 14257, and narrowed by EO 14361 of 20 November 2025 — was terminated with the rest of the IEEPA tariff arc by Executive Order 14389 after the Supreme Court’s Learning Resources ruling (see Executive order winds down IEEPA tariff collection).⁷

2. Section 301 remedies rest on the USTR’s investigation and determination rather than presidential findings alone — the pathway the administration’s tariff practice has shifted toward since February 2026 alongside § 232 and the newly revived § 338 (see Three Section 338 proclamations impose 50% duties on Canadian autos, alcohol and dairy). Implementation runs through the HTSUS modifications the memorandum directs and the Notice of Action carries; the operative entry mechanics — the 22 July effective moment and the annex structure — sit in the Notice of Action.¹⁴

3. Brazil’s government said it will invoke the mechanisms of its economic reciprocity law and pursue World Trade Organization dispute settlement, where unilateral § 301 remedies have previously been challenged; President Lula’s office said 76 percent of US imports entered Brazil duty-free in 2025 at a 3.1 percent average applied tariff, and US exports to Brazil exceeded imports by nearly $42 billion last year, per the Associated Press.⁵