Brazil Resolução GECEX Nº 876/2026 — Definitive Five-Year Antidumping Duty on Polyethylene Resins from the United States and Canada

Mechanism

The Departamento de Defesa Comercial (DECOM) opened the investigation on 14 November 2024 (Circular SECEX Nº 63, DOU 14/11/2024) following a petition by Braskem S.A. The probe covers three NCM subheadings:

• NCM 3901.10.30 — polyethylene of density < 0.94 g/cm³ (LDPE/LLDPE, without fillers)
• NCM 3901.20.29 — polyethylene of density ≥ 0.94 g/cm³ (HDPE)
• NCM 3901.40.00 — ethylene-alpha-olefin copolymers

The DECOM preliminary determination (Circular SECEX Nº 65, 20 August 2025) concluded that dumped imports from US and Canadian producers were causing material injury to Braskem's domestic market position. Provisional duties were levied via Resolução Gecex Nº 777, de 28 de Agosto de 2025 (DOU 29/08/2025) for up to six months.

At its 235th Ordinary Meeting on 26 March 2026, the Gecex approved the definitive determination — applying antidumping duties for up to five years. Gecex exercised its public-interest modulation authority under Brazilian AD law to set the definitive duty levels at the same values applied during the six-month provisional period, explicitly to avoid compounding the cost burden on downstream PE-consuming industries. The resulting Resolução Gecex Nº 876 was signed 13 April 2026 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 14 April 2026.

Register context

This is the first Brazil DECOM/Gecex definitive antidumping measure in the 2025-2026 cohort targeting US and Canadian exporters. The 2025-2026 Brazil DECOM cohort is otherwise exclusively directed at China and Asian exporters:

This creates a notable Brazil-US/Canada trade-friction flashpoint within the broader 2025-26 bilateral trade-realignment context, even though the investigation itself was initiated in November 2024 as a routine Braskem petition — predating the 2025 US IEEPA tariff on Brazil (EO 14323/2025) and the US Section 301 Brazil investigation.

Downstream implications

• Braskem S.A. is the primary beneficiary: the AD measure protects its domestic LDPE, HDPE, and ethylene-copolymer product lines from North American import competition
• Downstream sectors facing higher input costs: packaging-film manufacturers, agricultural-film producers, blow-moulded container manufacturers, and geomembrane producers — estimated ~70% of Brazil PE-resin imports by volume from US/Canada
• The public-interest duty modulation (matching provisional not final DECOM-recommended rates) signals Gecex awareness of cost pass-through sensitivity in Brazil's plastics-processing sector
• Asian PE exporters (China, Saudi Arabia, South Korea) are not subject to this determination — may gain trade-share from US/Canadian diversion

Open questions

• Exact ad-valorem duty rates by individual exporter (company-specific) not confirmed from public sources; full rate table is in the DOU 14/04/2026 Resolução Gecex 876 text
• Provisional predecessor Resolução Gecex Nº 777/2025 is not yet in the IPTM register; that instrument is the direct antecedent
• Whether US or Canadian exporters will request WTO dispute-settlement review under the Anti-Dumping Agreement
• Renewal/review timeline: five-year expiry approximately April 2031, with DECOM sunset-review proceeding expected circa 2030