Tag: brazil tariff

If prices on a few of your favorite US stores looked a little different this week, there is a real reason. Two US tariff changes landed almost on top of each other: a 10 percent across-the-board import surcharge called Section 122 expired at 12:01 a.m. EDT on July 24, and a new 25 percent tariff on thousands of Brazilian imports took effect just two days earlier, on July 22. Neither change targets shoppers directly, but both ripple into the shelf prices of goods sold by US retailers, which matters if you are buying from those retailers to ship internationally.

What Actually Changed

Section 122 was a temporary 10 percent global tariff the US government introduced in February as a stand-in after the Supreme Court struck down an earlier round of emergency tariffs. By law it could only last 150 days without an act of Congress, and no extension was pending, so it lapsed this week. In its place, a new Section 301 tariff regime covering 46 countries is expected to take over on or near the same date, and duties on Chinese-origin goods continue to stack on top of existing rates. In short: one blanket surcharge is going away, but it is being replaced by a more targeted, country-by-country system rather than disappearing.

Why Brazil Is the Clearest Example

Brazil is the most concrete case so far. Following a year-long US trade investigation, a new 25 percent duty on a wide range of Brazilian goods, including apparel, sugar, paper, and steel, took effect on July 22. A handful of categories are carved out, such as orange juice, beef, energy products, and personal baggage, but apparel is not among the exemptions. That matters because apparel is one of the categories international resellers most often source from US retailers and marketplaces, so any Brazilian-made inventory sold through those channels could see price movement in the coming weeks as the new duty works through supply chains.

What It Means If You Shop or Resell From the US

None of this changes how customs works when a package leaves the US for your country. That part is still governed entirely by your own country’s import rules, not by what the US charges importers to bring goods into the country in the first place. What can change is the price tag at checkout, especially on categories with heavy exposure to the affected countries. A few practical takeaways:

• Electronics, apparel, and home goods are the categories most likely to see price movement, since they draw heavily on imported components and finished goods.
• Price changes will not be uniform or immediate. Retailers absorb, phase in, or pass along tariff costs differently, so the same product can move at different speeds across stores.
• If you are planning a larger purchase or a resale restock, it is worth checking current pricing rather than assuming a quote from a few weeks ago still holds.

Where Viabox Fits In

Whatever happens on the US import side, the part Viabox handles does not change: you shop any US store, we receive the package at our Portland, Oregon warehouse, consolidate it with anything else you are shipping, and forward it to your door. There are no monthly fees, and you only pay when you actually ship. The tariff shifts above affect what you pay the retailer, not how your package moves once it reaches us.

If you are keeping an eye on landed costs for a resale business or just want to make sure your next US order ships out cleanly, a Viabox account is free to set up and ready whenever you need it.