The tariff measures adopted by the United States impact international trade and require attention from Brazilian exporters. To support Brazilian businesses in diagnosing their trade exposure and identifying risks, ApexBrasil launched the US Tariff Measures Panel. This interactive and free platform organizes technical information in a simple interface, allowing companies to quickly discover whether their products are subject to surcharges or exemptions in the US market. In light of the tariff increases applied by Washington, trade promotion and advocacy efforts have accelerated market diversification in Brazilian foreign trade. Commercial Intelligence The main objective of the tool is to serve as a commercial intelligence instrument to support business analysis, strategic planning, and risk assessment. The interface allows for dynamic queries by entering the HS6 code (a six-digit number created by the World Customs Organization to classify goods in global trade) or a detailed product description. The platform was designed to directly answer essential questions from the daily life of exporters, such as whether the selected product has been exported from Brazil to the US in the recent period, the current level of relevance of the US market for this sector, whether the item is included in the analyzed lists of monitored tariff measures, and which other global markets import the same product, serving as an alternative for the business. In addition to tariff mapping, the dashboard details the evolution of bilateral exports, provides methodological notes, and offers a frequently asked questions section to guide the user in the correct interpretation of the data. Monitored tariff measures The dashboard centralizes the monitoring of four major regulatory fronts implemented or evaluated by US authorities: The need for using the dashboard is evidenced by the very redesign of the country's trade flow. Historically, Brazilian exports have been reducing their concentration in the US market: aggregate dependence on the US fell from 19.1% in 2005 to 10.8% in 2025. This geopolitical shift has altered leadership among the states: in 2005, 17 Brazilian states had the US as their main trading partner; in 2025, this number shrank to just 6, while China took the top spot in the trade balance in 14 states. Currently, a diagnosis prepared by ApexBrasil indicates that 51.1% of the total value exported to the US (US$ 19.3 billion) is exempt from the main restrictive measures. However, a 24.9% share of sales (US$ 9.4 billion) faces surcharges between 12.5% and 25%, and another 20.2% are subject to Section 232 rules. Exposure varies drastically by sector. Sugar and Ethanol (ÚNICA) shows the lowest aggregate exposure, with only 2.6% directed to the US, reaching only 0.1% for cane sugar. Machinery and Equipment (ABIMAQ) shows a total dependence of 9.4%, while the Leather sector (CICB) registers 14.0%, sharing the market with China and Italy. Ceramic Coatings (ANFACER) shows an average exposure of 18.3%. On the other hand, specific products face regulatory vulnerability due to their almost exclusive dependence on the US buyer, such as natural honey (84.0%), beef tallow (96.1%), tilapia fillets (94.3%), and specific types of coniferous wood (97.6%). Despite the environment of tariff pressures and frictions, the Brazilian export sector achieved absolute historical milestones in 2025, with a record US$348.3 billion in total exports and a trade flow of US$628.4 billion, almost tripling the values recorded two decades ago. Strategic Response The institutional strategy for addressing tariff challenges at ApexBrasil is based on two fundamental pillars: the active diversification of markets and the defense of the interests of Brazilian productive sectors in Washington. In 2025, ApexBrasil executed more than 80 trade promotion actions that connected 2,400 national companies to new destinations. The impact was immediate: after the implementation of US tariff barriers in August 2025, 72% of the supported companies that sold to the US managed to open at least one new alternative export market. The expansion gained global traction with the planning of 142 specific actions targeted at the EU, aiming to serve 2,628 companies and detail the advantages of the trade agreement between the blocs. This included expanding the Matchmaking on Demand program to strategic markets such as Mexico and Canada, and planning to establish regional representation in Central America and the Caribbean dedicated to boosting the insertion of Brazilian products in these regions. Furthermore, the agency worked intensively to empower and empower exporters directly in the US capital. The agency trained approximately 20 sectors in advocacy and provided individualized consulting to 10 of them to formulate their technical defenses and participate in public hearings in the US. An institutional success story occurred with the ornamental stone sector (Centrorochas), which, through this direct articulation, managed to remove quartzites from the list of products subject to surcharges in the first "tariff hike" – a technical victory that the sector now seeks to replicate for granites and marbles. Opportunities for the future The redirection of Brazilian foreign trade points to growth horizons in the medium and long term. The Mercosur-European Union Agreement enabled the mapping of 543 opportunities with immediate tariff reductions after ratification, opening an estimated potential of US$1.1 billion in additional exports for products such as footwear (currently subject to tariffs between 3% and 17%), soluble coffee, and grapes. Regarding critical minerals, Brazil holds a leading position, concentrating some of the world's largest reserves of strategic inputs for green technology: 65.6% of niobium, 24.7% of rare earths, 23.9% of graphite, and 11.4% of nickel. The existing gap between the volume of reserves and current production indicates a massive opportunity for customs expansion, which already accounts for US$7.15 billion in mapped greenfield projects. Finally, the consolidation of this new export landscape is strongly reflected in the rise of the Global South and the growing prominence of emerging markets. The current geopolitical scenario strategically benefits Brazil, driven by the projection of India becoming the world's third-largest economy by 2031, coupled with China remaining a central and indispensable trading partner. This redirection and the search for new horizons are already translating into robust results: between 2023 and 2025, the country successfully opened 600 new markets in 88 different countries, achieving an unprecedented import potential estimated at US$50 billion for these new destinations and consolidating a path of resilience and commercial sovereignty in the face of tariff challenges in the northern hemisphere.
This text was translated by machine from Brazilian Portuguese.