“Prior to the implementation of punitive trade barriers, Brazil and the United States enjoyed an open and efficient two-way trading relationship in ethanol, which resulted in our two nations experiencing a dramatic increase in bilateral ethanol trade,” said RFA General Counsel and Vice President, Government Affairs Ed Hubbard. “However, beginning in 2017, Brazil unilaterally began abandoning this mutually beneficial approach, instead turning to a pro-tariff policy, clearly erected in an effort to disadvantage U.S. ethanol imports.”
As a result of this newly applied tariff regime, the value of U.S. fuel ethanol exports to Brazil fell to zero in 2023, just $43 million in 2024 and $68 million in 2025, Hubbard added. U.S. ethanol exports to Brazil accounted for just 1.3 percent of total U.S. ethanol exports in 2024 and 1.8 percent of exports in 2025, after accounting for approximately one-third of total U.S. exports as recently as 2018.
Hubbard also pointed to Brazil’s implementation of its “RenovaBio” national biofuels policy, which is designed to reduce the carbon intensity of Brazil’s transportation fuel matrix, as another example of Brazil’s discriminatory trade practices. The RenovaBio program is expected to generate 5 billion gallons of new biofuel demand in Brazil through 2030. However, after five years of implementation, not a single U.S. ethanol plant has received a full certification from the Brazilian government to generate credits under the RenovaBio program.
Click here for related comments filed by RFA last week with the U.S. Trade Representative.
