Brazil’s government has published and enacted Law No. 15.122 of 11 April 2025 in the Official Gazette on 14 April 2025. This legislation, also known as the “Economic Reciprocity Law, enables Brazil to impose import duties and suspend trade concessions, investments, and intellectual property obligations in response to unilateral actions by other countries or blocs that negatively impact Brazil’s international competitiveness.
The law marks a strategic move by Brazil in response to the “reciprocal tariff” measures imposed on numerous countries by the administration of US President Donald Trump. For Brazil, these measures included a 10% tariff on all products exported to the US market.
The only exception was steel and aluminium, two Brazilian exports hit with a 25% surcharge by the US government—a move that heavily impacted Brazilian companies. As the third-largest supplier of these metals to the US, Brazil faces significant challenges from this policy.
The legislation was enacted in response to the impact of US tariffs on Brazilian steel and aluminium exports. It requires countermeasures to be proportional to the economic effects and prioritises diplomatic consultations to resolve trade disputes.
On 2 April 2025, Trump signed an executive order to impose a 10% baseline tariff on imports from all countries. The policy also introduced reciprocal tariffs targeting nations with the largest trade deficits with the US, setting these rates at approximately half the tariffs those countries impose on American goods.
