On Thursday 12 December, we hosted the webinar “Trump and Tariffs: A Global Perspective of What Lies Ahead”. The session focused on the potential tariff impacts of President-Elect Trump’s second term in office, giving a global perspective on what to look out for, and how best to prepare.
Speakers from across the globe discussed the potential impacts in their respective jurisdictions, the key takeaways of which can be found here.
Highlights from our Latin America speakers Esteban Rópolo (Argentina) and Francisco Niclós Negrão (Trench Rossi Watanabe – Brazil) are set out below, and can be heard here. To listen to the full webinar, please click here.
Highlights from Latin America
- Trump has placed a particular focus on tariffs for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS).
- Tariffs are expected to be applied to ports with Chinese investment in Latin America.
- Regional cooperation and diversification of trade partners may be a tool envisaged to offset impacts of tariff measures from the US.
- Further, increased partnership with other countries, such as China or EU (notably under Mercosur-EU agreement), is also anticipated.
- Argentina is seen as an outlier in Latin America, due to a stronger relationship between Argentinian President Javier Milei and Trump and its (so far) closed economy that shelters it from global disruptions.
Mitigation measures Key takeaways for businesses include implementing due diligence on global supply chains, with a particular emphasis on targeted jurisdictions such as China and the US’s USMCA counterparts. Whilst Trump’s second term will be unpredictable, key mitigation strategies can be implemented, such as relocation of production (subject to anti-circumvention rules – see our blog post on the recent ECJ case on anti-circumvention of tariffs), considering contractual clauses and exclusions, as well as possible lobbying. General tariff escalation and the intensification of the use of trade remedies is, naturally, expected, and companies shall be ready to use (in their favour) these instruments or be ready to defend against these measures (e.g. act in case of an increase in inputs). For further information, and keep up to date on all developments, please see the Import and Trade Remedies blog.
