The tariff imposed by the United States government had a specific effect on the performance of the Brazilian economy in 2025, which reached an expansion of 2.3% compared to the previous year.
The assessment was made by the coordinator of National Accounts at the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), Rebeca Palis, during a presentation of the performance of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
GDP is the set of goods and services produced in the country and serves as an indicator of the economy’s behavior.
THE 2025 result reveals that Brazilian exports grew 6.2% compared to the previous year.
“In terms of pricing, we really saw that these were very specific things.”
“Exporters looked for other markets. Brazil was already able to export more to other countries. The United States is no longer weighing as much as a destination for Brazilian exports”, he points out.
“Probably, without the tariff we would have even exported more. But we exported a lot, we grew and last year’s growth was important”, adds the researcher.
The United States is Brazil’s second main trading partner, second only to China.
Understand the pricing
THE pricing of American President Donald Trump, came into force in August 2025. By raising taxes on imported products, the United States government claims that it intends to protect the American economy.
The idea is that, with taxation, Americans would start manufacturing products locally instead of purchasing them abroad.
In the case of Brazil, which suffered from one of the highest rates, of up to 50%, the American president also claimed that it was retaliation for Brazil’s treatment of former president Jair Bolsonaro, whom Trump considered to be persecuted, before being condemned by the Federal Supreme Court (STF), in September 2025, for an attempted coup d’état.
Since then, the Brazilian and American governments negotiate ways to seek agreements for commercial partnership.
According to the Ministry of Development, Industry, Commerce and Services (Mdic), exports to the United States fell 6.6% in 2025.
Court overturns tariff
On February 20th, a decision by the US Supreme Court overturned Trump’s decision to tax international purchases. The American president reacted imposing a 10% tariff to different countries.
According to the Mdic, the new tariff regime in the United States should save 46% of products Brazilians exported to the country.
