New Trade Reciprocity Law: How Brazil Can Retaliate

Law 15,122/2025 (the “Trade Reciprocity Law”) came into force on 14 April 2025 after being rushed through Congress. The Trade Reciprocity Law empowers the Brazilian federal government to implement reciprocal economic measures against countries or economic blocs that impose unilateral restrictions detrimental to Brazil’s international competitiveness.

The Trade Reciprocity Law will apply where a country or economic bloc where at least one of the following occurs:

• interference with Brazil’s legitimate and sovereign choices;
• breach of trade agreements; or
• unilateral measures based on environmental requirements.

Each of these grounds has different sets of elements that need to be present:

Ground	Elements Required to be Present
1. Interference with Brazil’s legitimate and sovereign choices	The country or bloc: (a) interferes with Brazil’s legitimate and sovereign choices; (b) seeks to cause the ceasing, modification or adoption of specific acts or practices in Brazil through the interference; and (c) causes the interference by applying (or threatening to apply) unilateral commercial, financial or investment measures.
2. Breach of trade agreements	The country or bloc:   (a) has a trade agreement with Brazil; and (b)(i) breaches or acts in a manner inconsistent with trade agreements; or (b)(ii) “in any way” denies, annuls or harms benefits to Brazil under “any trade agreement”.
3. Unilateral measures based on environmental requirements	The country or bloc: (a) applies unilateral measures; and (b) imposes environmental requirements that are “more onerous that the parameters, regulations and standards” adopted by Brazil.

The procedure for assessing whether any ground exists requires a prior public consultation, allowing the parties to make submissions and suggest countermeasures. At the same time, diplomatic discussions are required to take place to “mitigate or annul the effect of the measures and countermeasures” set out in the Trade Reciprocity Law.

Once one of the three grounds is found to exist, the Federal government has various sanctions at its disposal, including one or more of the following:

• impose reciprocal measures;
• suspend concessions “or other obligations” relating to intellectual property rights;
• change the rate of the contribution payable on the importing of royalties and administrative services (CIDE);
• in “exceptional” cases, impose temporary countermeasures; and
• suspend concessions or other obligations contained in “any trade agreements that Brazil may be a party”.

The only restrictions on the powers given to the Brazilian government to retaliate are that the countermeasures:

• be “to the extent possible, proportional to the economic impact” of the measures taken by the foreign country or bloc;
• seek to minimise the impact of economic activity and avoid disproportionate administrative costs.

Final Remarks

In light of President Trump’s erratic measures affecting international trade, the Brazilian Congress quickly put in place a mechanism to protect Brazil’s interests. The Trade Reciprocity Law appears to strike a reasonable balance between the powers of legislators and the powers of the Brazilian President.

Although the Trade Reciprocity Law is to be praised, I hope that trade rules are parsimoniously negotiated and that the Brazilian President does not need to implement any of the sanctions available under that Law.

Questions?

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Brazil Brazilian trade agreements FDI Retaliation Trade Reciprocity Law Trade sanctions Trump's tariffs

Last modified: 16 April 2025