Brazil Lowers Duties on Various Products
Brazilian authorities have announced the addition of 269 items and the removal of 20 items to/from a list of foreign capital goods and information technology and telecommunications goods that benefit from duty-free treatment under the Ex-Tarifario regime, down from 14 or 16 percent. Many of these goods could potentially be imported from mainland China and/or Hong Kong.
Of this total, 250 items are capital goods and the remaining 19 are IT and telecom goods. The capital goods covered by these actions are classified in HS chapters 82, 84, 85, 86, 87 and 90, while subject IT and telecom goods are classified in HS chapters 84, 85 and 90. These goods will benefit from duty-free treatment through 31 December 2021.
Brazil has also established tariff-rate quotas on imports of the following products to correct a lack of supply in the Brazilian market:
- up to 170 units of certain generator circuit breaker systems classified under NCM 8537.20.90 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months;
- up to 170 units of certain plug and switch systems classified under NCM 8537.20.90 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months;
- up to 10,000 tonnes of post-condensate polyethylene terephthalate with an intrinsic viscosity no lower than 0.98 dl/g and no higher than 1.10 dl/g, classified under NCM 3907.61.00 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months from 30 December 2019;
- up to 2,200 tonnes of bicomponent elastic polyester non-textured filament yarn, known as elastomultiester, classified under NCM 5402.47.10 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months from 2 January 2020;
- up to 35 units of certain trailers and semi-trailers for the transport of goods classified under NCM 8716.39.00 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months;
- up to 55,000 tonnes of certain knitted pile fabrics of man-made fibres classified under NCM 6001.92.00 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months;
- up to 860 tonnes of printing ink other than black for digital textile printing, other than reactive, classified under NCM 3215.19.00 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months;
- up to 545 tonnes of black printing ink for digital textile printing, other than reactive, classified under NCM 3215.11.00 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months from 23 January 2020;
- up to 35,040 tonnes of polycarbonate in powder or flake form classified under NCM 3907.40.90 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months;
- up to 2,137 tonnes of certain aluminium foil classified under NCM 7607.11.90 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months from 1 February 2020;
- up to 88,000 tonnes of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) in aqueous solution used exclusively in the production of alumina or aluminium oxide, classified under NCM 2815.12.00 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months from 28 December 2019; and
- up to 910,000 tonnes of anhydrous disodium sulphate for the manufacture of powder detergents classified under NCM 2833.11.10 – reduced two percent duty for a period of 12 months from 31 January 2020.
[huge_it_slider id=”15″]Moreover, Brazil has excluded 31 items from the list of automotive parts that benefit from a reduced two percent duty, while the exemptions for eight items have been modified. Lastly, Brazil has provided duty-free treatment (down from eight percent) to certain medicaments classified under NCM 3004.90.69.