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Brazil eliminated import duties on electrified vehicles incrementally between 2015 and 2018 to encourage adoption of cleaner powertrains in a market dominated by ethanol-flex internal-combustion vehicles. The waiver was sustained through successive Camex acts but had no domestic-content tether, which by 2022-2023 had translated into a rapid surge of Chinese-brand imports — BYD, Great Wall Motor and Chery moving from negligible volumes to dominant share of the BEV/PHEV registrations. Resolução Gecex/Camex nº 532 of 10 November 2023 (DOU 22-23 November 2023) formally reverses the waiver through Annex V of Resolução Gecex 272/2021 and restores the Mercosur Common External Tariff treatment for NCM 8703.40 (HEV), 8703.60 (PHEV) and 8703.80 (BEV) on a progressive schedule converging at 35 % in July 2026.
The progressive phase-in (BEV 10→18→25→35 %, PHEV 12→20→28→35 %, HEV 15→25→30→35 %) gives existing importers an 18-month adjustment window. The transitional TRQs (~USD 660 m of finished electrified vehicles plus USD 39 m of electric trucks) are sized to cover roughly Brazil's 2023-vintage electrified import volume, not to expand it — i.e. the quota exists as a glide path, not a permanent carve-out.
Resolução 532 sits inside a broader structural pivot also reflected in:
industrial-policy framework underwriting BNDES capex lines for domestic auto-supply chains.
Rota 2030 with IPI bonus-malus tied to lifecycle CO₂ and a 2 % reduced-import-tariff option for OEMs committing R&D spend.
Together these three actions form Brazil's "tariff wall + capex carrots" play against Chinese EV imports — directly comparable to Turkey's Decreto 8639/2024 (40 % surcharge on Chinese vehicles, with YTB exemption for plant-builders), Canada's October 2024 100 % surtax order, and the EU's October 2024 China EV countervailing-duty regime.
The July 2025 Gecex amendment is structurally important: by accelerating the 35 % CKD rate from July 2028 to January 2027, Brazil compresses the window in which Chinese OEMs can use kit-assembly to circumvent the finished-vehicle tariff. The SKD six-month USD 463 m zero-tariff quota is the partial offset — recognising that BYD's Camaçari and Great Wall's Iracemápolis plants need import flow during the ramp.
must accelerate localisation milestones to remain price-competitive past 2026. BYD's announced USD 1 bn complex (Bahia) and Great Wall's USD 1.4 bn Iracemápolis complex were both timed against the 35 % cliff edge.
producers gain pricing headroom on flex-fuel and hybrid models; Toyota's Sorocaba Corolla Cross HEV is the largest single beneficiary on the finished-vehicle side.
Mover's 2 %-IPI "Carro Sustentável" tier and the 2 %-CIF reduced import tariff in exchange for 2 % R&D spend can offset part of the Gecex-532 schedule.
were running at ~USD 2 bn annualised mid-2024; the 35 % terminal rate prices in roughly USD 700 m/yr of additional duty before demand-elasticity adjustment.
Resolução Gecex 532 (the resolution was republished due to an Art. 1 omission — both versions are catalogued in the MDIC Gecex tarifárias index).
separate Resolução Gecex (number TBD) or as an amendment to Resolução 532 itself.
exemptions for vehicles assembled regionally (the Mercosur CET framework exempts intra-bloc origin — so the 35 % terminal rate applies only to non-Mercosur origin).