U.S. Trade Ambassador Jamieson Greer took final action this week under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 by imposing a 25% tariff on certain goods of Brazil, including ethanol.
Renewable Fuels Association President and CEO Geoff Cooper welcomed the action. “Over the past several years, Brazil has gone out of its way to block lower-cost U.S. ethanol through a complicated framework of tariffs and marketplace barriers,” said Cooper. “After Brazil rebuffed numerous attempts by the U.S. to negotiate a return to free and fair ethanol trade between our two nations, our leaders were left with no choice but to establish reciprocal treatment. It is our sincere hope that this action will motivate Brazil to come back to the negotiating table for good-faith discussions on improving ethanol trade between our two countries.”
The action follows a yearlong investigation by USTR that determined that certain Brazilian trade measures related to various goods and services, including ethanol market access, “are unreasonable and burden or restrict the commerce of American farmers, workers, innovators, and exporters.” The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) held two public hearings, received over 360 public comments, and negotiated intensively with the Government of Brazil to seek resolution of U.S. concerns.
RFA’s Ed Hubbard
“Prior to the implementation of punitive trade barriers, Brazil and the United States enjoyed an open and efficient two-way trading relationship in ethanol, which resulted in our two nations experiencing a dramatic increase in bilateral ethanol trade,” said Hubbard. “As a result of this newly applied tariff regime, the value of U.S. fuel ethanol exports to Brazil fell to zero in 2023, just $43 million in 2024 and $68 million in 2025.”
Hubbard also pointed to Brazil’s implementation of its “RenovaBio” national biofuels policy, which is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of Brazil’s transportation fuel matrix, as another example of Brazil’s discriminatory trade practices. The RenovaBio program is expected to generate 5 billion gallons of new biofuel demand in Brazil through 2030. However, after five years of implementation, not a single U.S. ethanol plant has received a full certification from the Brazilian government to generate credits under the RenovaBio program.