Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber Executive Committee (GECEX/CAMEX) extended for up to five years the definitive antidumping duty on imports of glass used in refrigeration appliances ("vidros para refrigeradores" / cooling-appliance glass) originating from the People's Republic of China, publishing Resolução GECEX nº 921/2026 in the Diário Oficial da União on 23 June 2026. The extension follows a DECOM sunset review (revisão de final de período) that concluded dumping and material injury to the Brazilian domestic glass-for-appliances industry would likely continue or recur if the measure were allowed to lapse. The action re-prices a China→Brazil component flow into the domestic white-goods and refrigeration-appliance manufacturing chain.

Brazil enacted Lei 15.506 of 16 September 2026 (in force on publication, Art. 51), establishing the Política Nacional de Minerais Críticos e Estratégicos (PNMCE) — Brazil's first standalone critical-minerals sovereignty framework — and the Conselho Nacional para Industrialização de Minerais Críticos e Estratégicos (CIMCE). The law originated as Bill PL 2780/2024, approved by the Chamber of Deputies on May 6-7, 2026 (one day before the Lula-Trump White House meeting) and then by the Senate. It authorises the Union to create the Fundo Garantidor da Atividade Mineral (FGAM) with up to R$2bn (Art. 9) to guarantee critical-mineral projects, and a tax credit of up to 20% of spend on critical-mineral processing, transformation and urban mining. The Chamber-approved text (CMCE committee with prior-approval rights over takeovers and foreign participation, FGAM up to R$5bn, 0.3% gross-revenue R&D levy) was amended before enactment; see the 2026-09-16 amendment.

Brazil's Foreign Trade Chamber Executive Committee (GECEX/CAMEX) imposed a five-year definitive antidumping duty on imports of ethanolamines (monoethanolamine and diethanolamine, NCM 2922.11.00 and 2922.12.00) originating from China, adopted at the 235th Ordinary GECEX meeting on 26 March 2026 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 6 April 2026. Duty rates range from 23.6% (Sailboat Petrochemical, the sole cooperating exporter with an individual rate) to 97.3% (residual rate applying to all other Chinese exporters), protecting Oxiteno SA (Indorama Ventures subsidiary), the sole Brazilian producer, against material injury from dumped Chinese imports.

Brazil's Câmara de Comércio Exterior (Gecex) published Resolução 857 in the Diário Oficial da União on 23 February 2026, reducing definitive anti-dumping duties on non-oriented electrical steel (aço GNO, NCM 7225.19.00 and 7226.19.00) originating in China, South Korea, Chinese Taipei and Germany. The measure follows a public-interest evaluation (avaliação de interesse público) concluded by SECEX/DECOM, which found that applying the full investigation-recommended duty level would create steel supply shortfalls and net welfare losses of approximately US$2.19 million, given that sole domestic producer Aperam South America cannot meet total Brazilian demand. New specific duties — US$90/ton for major named Asian producers, US$132.50/ton for other Asian exporters, and US$166.32/ton for German producers — are set below the DECOM recommendation and remain in force for the remainder of the 5-year window established by Gecex 758 of 10 July 2025 (expiring ~July 2030).

Portaria Normativa GM/MME nº 120/2025, published in the Diário Oficial da União on 14 November 2025 by the Ministério de Minas e Energia, regulates the Política de Debêntures para Projetos de Transformação de Minerais Estratégicos para a Transição Energética. It sets the eligibility criteria, classification methodology and project-approval pipeline (under Decreto 11.964/2024 and Leis 12.431/2011 and 14.801/2024) for tax-exempt incentivised debentures and infrastructure debentures financing the downstream transformation of cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel and rare earths into battery and permanent-magnet inputs (lithium carbonate/hydroxide, cobalt sulfate, nickel sulfate, battery-grade copper foil, rare earth oxides/ chlorides/metals/alloys). MME estimates ~R$5.2 bn/year in unlocked private investment (R$3.7 bn transformation + R$1.5 bn mining/ beneficiation, with up to 49% of bond proceeds usable on linked upstream activities).

Decreto No. 12.549, signed 10 July 2025 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 11 July 2025, updates the IPI (Tax on Industrialised Products) incidence table (TIPI, HS headings 87.03 passenger vehicles and 87.04 goods vehicles) under Brazil's Programa Mover bonus-malus framework. Diesel-only vehicles face an IPI increase of up to 12 percentage points, while electric and hybrid vehicles receive reductions of up to 2 percentage points with a floor of 0%. Vehicles certified as "Carro Sustentável" — compact, energy-efficient models manufactured in Brazil meeting MDIC lifecycle-emissions and recyclability thresholds — qualify for a zero-IPI rate. The government designed the rebalancing as fiscally neutral, estimating the reduced rate applies to roughly 60% of 2024 vehicle sales volumes, with validity through December 2026.

On 11 April 2025, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned without vetoes Lei nº 15.122/2025 ("Lei da Reciprocidade Econômica"), published in the Diário Oficial da União on 14 April 2025 and effective the next business day. The statute — Brazil's first standalone economic-retaliation framework — empowers the Executive to suspend (i) trade concessions on imports of goods and services, (ii) intellectual-property rights and obligations under Lei 12.270/2010, and (iii) concessions or commitments assumed under trade agreements, as countermeasures against unilateral measures by individual countries or economic blocs that negatively impact Brazilian international competitiveness, including environmental requirements stricter than Brazil's own. Decreto nº 12.551 of 14 July 2025 (DOU 15 July 2025) regulates the law, creating the Comitê Interministerial de Negociação e Contramedidas Econômicas e Comerciais (CINCEC), chaired by MDIC with seats for Casa Civil, Fazenda and Itamaraty (Relações Exteriores), and establishes both a fast-track provisional countermeasure procedure (CINCEC-only) and an ordinary track (≥5 months) routed through SE-CAMEX, GECEX, the CAMEX Strategic Council and a 30-day public consultation.

Law 14.968/2024 establishes the Brasil Semicon program, extending and expanding semiconductor industry incentives through 2073 (aligned with Manaus Free Trade Zone benefits). Provides R$7 billion annually in tax incentives for semiconductor and ICT sectors, with R$21 billion committed through 2026. Expands PADIS eligibility to include chip design services and software, and calculates R&D credits on total revenue rather than domestic sales alone, encouraging exports.

On 2 August 2024, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned Lei nº 14.948/2024 (with partial veto, Mensagem nº 741) at a ceremony in the Pecém Industrial-Port Complex in Ceará, following Senate and Chamber approval of PL 2308/2023; the law was published in the Diário Oficial da União on 5 August 2024. The statute establishes Brazil's first comprehensive legal framework for low-carbon hydrogen: it (i) creates the National Low-Carbon Hydrogen Policy (PNH2BC) under the National Energy Policy umbrella, (ii) sets a statutory definition of "low-carbon hydrogen" as fuel/industrial input with lifecycle GHG intensity ≤ 7 kg CO₂e/kg H₂, (iii) institutes the Brazilian Hydrogen Certification System (SBCH2) for origin and emissions accreditation, (iv) creates the Special Incentive Regime for Low-Carbon Hydrogen Production (Rehidro), suspending PIS/Pasep and Cofins for five years on capital-goods, raw-materials and services purchases by qualified producers, and (v) authorises the Programa de Desenvolvimento do Hidrogênio de Baixa Emissão de Carbono (PHBC) — a tax-credit envelope capped at BRL 18.3 bn between 2028 and 2032 (subsequently regulated by Lei nº 14.990/2024 sanctioned 30 September 2024). ANP gains regulatory authority over hydrogen transportation, storage and import/export licensing, while the law amends Leis nºs 9.427/1996 (ANEEL) and 9.478/1997 (Petroleum Law) to integrate hydrogen into the energy-policy and electricity-regulation framework. Industry reporting at sanction cited >USD 30 bn in announced project pipeline, concentrated in Northeast renewable-rich states (Ceará, Bahia, Pernambuco, Rio Grande do Norte) leveraging Pecém, Suape and Açu as hydrogen-derivative export terminals.

Lei 14.902/2024, sanctioned 27 June 2024 (DOU 28 June 2024), institutes the Programa Mobilidade Verde e Inovação (Programa Mover), Brazil's successor framework to Rota 2030 for the automotive ecosystem (passenger cars, trucks, buses, auto parts). The law converts Provisional Measure 1.205/2023 into permanent statute and authorises approximately R$19.3 billion (~USD 4.8 billion) in financial credits for R&D and decarbonisation projects through 2028, alongside an IPI (Industrialised Products Tax) bonus-malus regime tied to lifecycle CO2 emissions, recyclability and energy-efficiency thresholds. Vehicles meeting the strictest "Carro Sustentável" criteria (≤83 gCO2/km, ≥80% recyclability) qualify for zero-IPI treatment, while non-compliant vehicles face higher tax rates. The programme is regulated by Decreto 12.435/2025 (15 April 2025), with mandatory emissions-labelling and commercialisation requirements taking effect from 1 June 2025. The law also permits a 2% reduced import tariff rate for qualifying vehicles where the importer commits R&D spend equivalent to 2% of customs value.

On 22 January 2024, Brazil's National Council for Industrial Development (CNDI), reactivated by President Lula in 2023, launched Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) — Brazil's first comprehensive national industrial policy since the 2011-2014 Plano Brasil Maior. The framework commits roughly R$300 billion (~USD 60 billion) in financing through 2026, distributed across loans, non-refundable grants and equity participations administered by BNDES (Brazilian Development Bank), Finep (Research and Projects Financing Company) and Embrapii (Brazilian Industrial Research and Innovation Company), with quantitative targets running to 2033. The R$300bn envelope combines R$106bn announced at the first CNDI meeting in July 2023 with R$194bn redirected from existing budget lines. NIB is structured around six "missions": (1) sustainable and digital agro-industrial chains, (2) health-industrial complex resilience (medicines, vaccines, devices), (3) urban infrastructure and green mobility, (4) digital transformation and Industry 4.0 including semiconductors, (5) bioeconomy and energy transition, and (6) defence, sovereignty and national-security technologies. Two presidential decrees signed the same day establish local-content preferences for New PAC public-procurement bids and create an Interministerial Public Procurement Commission. As of February 2025, BNDES had approved R$220bn in NIB-aligned operations, and the plan has anchored downstream sectoral programmes including Brasil Semicon, the Mover automotive programme and Mais Inovação.

Resolução Gecex/Camex nº 532, deliberated 10 November 2023 and published in the Diário Oficial da União on 22-23 November 2023, re-establishes Brazilian import duties on battery-electric (BEV), plug-in hybrid (PHEV) and hybrid (HEV) passenger vehicles under NCM chapter 8703 after a multi-year zero-tariff exemption. Tariffs phase up on a progressive schedule beginning January 2024 and reaching a uniform 35 % by July 2026 (BEV: 10 %→18 %→25 %→35 %; PHEV: 12 %→20 %→28 %→35 %; HEV: 15 %→25 %→30 %→35 %). The resolution also opens transitional tariff-rate quotas (TRQs) — roughly USD 660 million of EV/hybrid imports plus USD 39 million of electric trucks may enter at zero duty across the 2024-2026 phase-in window — and is operationalised by Portaria SECEX nº 291/2023, which sets the quota allocation rules. The measure is the first re-tariffing of Brazil's auto sector against Chinese EV/hybrid exports since the Inovar-Auto regime ended in 2017.