The trade group says the 25% duty on Brazilian imports should increase prices across energy, plastics and production and push chemical makers towards Chinese-sourced materials rather than to U.S. production.
The Trump administration’s 25% tariff on certain Brazilian imports ought to put industry U.S. Chemical industry reshoring initiatives at risk, stated the American Chemistry Council in a assertion launched after the July 15 executive order.
“ACC is worried that wide tariffs on imports from trusted trading partners like Brazil could make it more tough to reshore and friend shore supply chains closer to home mainly when confronted with more considerable unfair trading practices from other nations,” ACC stated.
The tariffs effect a huge range of chemicals, especially ethanol and many materials used outside the pharmaceutical sector.
These huge, untargeted tariffs could boost costs across downstream sectors, such as energy, plastics and production, and put current U.S. Reshoring efforts that depends on Brazilian raw materials at risk, as per July 1 letter from Jason Bernstein, ACC’s director of international trade and supply chain, submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) on its proposed action.
Rather than of reinforcing U.S. supply chains, the tariffs could make it cheaper for chemical producers to abandon domestic manufacturing and import finished chemicals from other countries using China-sourced raw materials, the letter stated.
“This would weaken U.S supply chain resilience and increase U.S. Dependence on less balanced and intentionally aligned partners,” the letter stated. “We therefore would express caution in enforcing those proposed tariffs and request USTR to establish a review method to detect and address these and similar unexpected consequences before such tariffs are implemented.”
ACC stated it was pleased to see an extended list of exemptions from the tariffs from the initial proposal. The list consists of a large variety of chemical and petrochemical raw materials which are unavailable domestically or in insufficient quantities, along with aluminum hydroxide (see the entire Federal Register list).
The Trump administration claims that for decades Brazil’s trade policies and practices have unfairly harmed U.S. Farmers, employees, innovators and businesses, even as limiting access to Brazil’s consumers.
The administration mainly referred to Brazil’s lower tariffs on imports from Mexico and India, weak anti-corruption rules, lax intellectual property protections and a failure to reciprocate the U.S. Favorable treatment of Brazilian ethanol as main reasons for the 25% fee.
Imports of U.S. Ethanol into Brazil have declined since Brazil reinstated its ethanol tariff, as per USTR. In 2025, U.S. Ethanol exports to Brazil totaled $96 million, an 87% decrease from the peak export value of $761 million in of 2018.
