Overview

• Brazil filed a 91-page submission rejecting the U.S. Section 301 investigation and saying it does not recognize Washington’s authority to conduct a unilateral probe.
• The U.S. inquiry, launched in July under Section 301, targets Brazil’s digital trade and tariff policies for allegedly burdening U.S. commerce.
• Washington accepted Brazil’s request for WTO consultations on the 50 percent duties in a letter dated August 15 posted by the U.S. mission in Geneva.
• The U.S. letter cautioned that parts of Brazil’s complaint involve national security matters that it says fall outside WTO dispute settlement.
• Brazil defended its ethanol market rules and the Pix digital payments system as neither unreasonable nor discriminatory toward U.S. companies.