Brazil Drops PVC From Tariff Renewal; Duty Falls to 12.6%

Brazil renewed 20% import tariffs on PE and PP for 12 months from 17 October 2026 and left PVC out. What the two duty layers mean for buyers of suspension PVC.

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Brazil's foreign trade committee renewed the temporary 20% import tariff on polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) for another 12 months, and left polyvinyl chloride (PVC) out of the renewal. From 17 October 2026 the import duty on suspension PVC falls back to the 12.6% Mercosur common external tariff, Chemical Week reported on 4 September 2026. The package was set by Resolutions Gecex 963 and 969, both dated 2 October 2026; Resolution 963 was published in the Diário Oficial da União on 5 October 2026, with rates in force from 17 October 2026 to 16 October 2027.

Quick answer: suspension PVC entering Brazil under NCM 3904.10.10 carries two separate charges. The general import duty drops to 12.6% on 17 October 2026. An anti-dumping duty of 21.6% on China-origin resin sits on top of it, continued for five years on 6 August 2026. The two charges come from different instruments and run on different clocks, so a quote that names only one of them is incomplete.

1. What the October package lists

Resolution 963 amends Annex IX of Resolution Gecex 272 of 19 November 2021, the list Brazil uses for temporary tariff increases tied to trade imbalances. The annex covers 24 NCM codes. The polymer lines read as follows.

Two exceptions inside the polystyrene line stay at 12.6%: an alpha-methylstyrene and styrene copolymer, and styrene-butadiene block copolymers within stated haze and composition limits. Dioctyl and dinonyl phthalates, monoethanolamine and most anionic surfactants land at 20%, phenol stays at 12.6%, phosphoric acid with low iron content sits at 17.5%, and sodium chlorite at 10.8%.

Resolution 969, signed the same day, adds four thermoplastic resins to Brazil's LETEC exception list at 20%, according to ChemNet (13 October 2026): unfilled low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, unfilled polypropylene, and PET with a viscosity index of 78 ml/g or higher. ChemNet counts 28 product classes across the two resolutions.

Neither annex lists NCM 3904, the code for suspension PVC. Acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS), part of the original October 2024 measure, is absent from the annex as well.

2. Two charges, two clocks

What a Brazilian importer pays on suspension PVC is the sum of two ad valorem charges on the customs value, set by different instruments.

The import duty applies to cargoes from all origins except countries that hold bilateral trade agreements with Brazil, such as Egypt, Israel, Colombia and Mercosur members, Chemical Week noted. China holds no such agreement with Brazil, so Chinese-origin cargoes take the full rate.

The anti-dumping duty is origin-specific and runs longer. Resolution Gecex 947, published on 6 August 2026, continued the 21.6% duty on suspension PVC from China for five years in the third sunset review of a case opened in 2007. Brazil's embassy commercial office in China and Hong Kong's Trade and Industry Department both reported the determination, which covers NCM 3904.10.10. Braskem S.A. and Unipar Indupa S.A. filed for the review in April 2025.

Other Brazilian import taxes, including IPI, PIS and COFINS on imports, ICMS and the merchant marine freight surcharge, sit on top of both charges. They are outside the scope of this article.

3. Why PVC was dropped

The ministry's reasoning, as reported by Chemical Week, was that anti-dumping duties already cover the two supply sources that matter. André Passos Cordeiro, president of the Brazilian Chemical Industry Association (Abiquim), said at an industry event on 1 September 2026: "The justification they sent is that this product would be covered by the US ADD."

The market did not see it coming. "Everyone thought this wouldn't happen," a trader told Platts. A distributor called the news good for processors and said it spread quickly, suggesting the change could reverse a 10% price increase recently announced by one local producer. Chemical Week reported that offers from Taiwan, South Korea and Europe are expected to become more competitive, while China and the US stay out of the market because their anti-dumping duties were not changed.

Abiquim praised the package as a whole, saying it confirms the diagnosis that the Brazilian chemical industry remains exposed to a surge of predatory imports from oversupply by big production fields, especially in China and the US. At the same meeting the ministry suspended discussions on reanalyzing requests to raise the anti-dumping duty on US-origin PE.

4. The clock on a temporary list

Nothing on this list is permanent. Every 12 months the same question is asked again, product by product, and the answer can change. For PVC the answer changed at the August meeting, three weeks before the resolution was signed.

5. What to ask before quoting into Brazil

1. Which NCM line applies? Suspension PVC (3904.10.10) and paste resin sit on different lines with different duty histories. The customs broker's classification decides the rate, not the product catalogue.
2. What is the origin, and does an anti-dumping duty attach to it? Origin is a document fact. China-origin suspension PVC carries 21.6%; US-origin carries 43.7%, per Chemical Week.
3. Which Incoterms does the quote use, and which of the two charges sits inside the price? A CFR quote and a DDP quote are different products when the duty layer moves.
4. What rate was in force on the shipment date? The package changes on 17 October 2026. A quote written in September can price a duty that no longer applies to a November cargo.
5. Is the 21.6% duty inside the supplier's price or left to the importer? Ask in writing, and keep the answer with the quote.
6. Diary 16 October 2027. The package expires then unless it is renewed, and the renewal is a fresh decision.

Question 3 is the one that moves money. A supplier who builds the 20% duty that applied in October 2025 into a delivered offer for December 2026 has priced a charge that will not be collected, and the importer pays for it.

6. Settled, and not settled

Settled by the published texts: the renewal scope for PE and PP, the absence of NCM 3904 from both annexes, the 12.6% fallback date of 17 October 2026, the 21.6% duty on China-origin PVC continued for five years, and the 16 October 2027 expiry of the package.

Not settled: whether PVC returns to the list at the next renewal, whether local producers hold or walk back the announced 10% increase, the outcome of the suspended US PE review, and how importers split orders among origins over the coming year.

Three public sources:

• Chemical Week, 4 September 2026: Brazil renews 20% import tariff for PE and PP, but not PVC
• Resolution Gecex 963 of 2 October 2026, full text as published in the Diário Oficial da União
• Hong Kong Trade and Industry Department, circular 718/2026: Brazil continues the anti-dumping duty on PVC resin from the Chinese mainland

If you are quoting suspension PVC into Brazil, send us the grade, the quantity and the destination, and we will confirm the origin and the Incoterms on the offer in writing. We usually reply within 12 hours, GMT+8.