Global Trade Alert

On 5 May 2016, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Council (Camex) issued Resolution No. 42 changing the import tariff on a number of specific goods by including or excluding them from the List of Exceptions to the Common External Tariff (LETEC). Such goods are specified under the Mercosur Common Nomenclature (NCM) product codes.

The import tariff was increased on the following four goods subsequent to their inclusion on LETEC: palm oil (NCM 1511.90.00) from 10% to 20%, certain polyester fibres (NCM 5503.20.10) from 2% to 10%, Clonazepam (NCM 2933.91.13) from 2% to 12%; and Sevoflurane (NCM 2909.19.90) 2% to 14%.
The Resolution entered into force on 6 May 2016.
 
List of Exceptions to the Common External Tariff
The tariff codes were included in the List of Exceptions to the Common External Tariff (LETEC) of Mercosur. LETEC is a mechanism that allows member states of Mercosur to apply customs duties that are lower or higher than otherwise listed in the Mercosur Common External Tariff schedule. However, the tariffs shall not surpass the ceilings given by the WTO.
Mercosur Decision CMC no. 26/15 gives Brazil the right to maintain a LETEC of 100 codes based on the NCM until 31 December 2021. Due to this restriction, Brazil had to retrieve a number of other goods, as noted above.
Affected trading partners are identified based on UN Comtrade's import data from 2014.