Brazil seeks to beef up business ties with China

Brazil is pivoting toward China and other Asian markets as it seeks to shield its powerhouse beef export industry from the impact of higher US tariffs set to take effect in August.

The US announced earlier this month that it would impose a 50 percent tariff on Brazilian beef from Aug 1. That would bring the total tariff on Brazil's beef to 76 percent.

The move triggered immediate reactions in Brasilia and among industry leaders, with a growing consensus that diversifying exports away from the US is now a strategic imperative.

"New shipments are under analysis by the private sector due to the increase in tariffs," said Roberto Perosa, president of the Brazilian Association of Meat Exporting Industries, in remarks to local media last week. The new tariffs, he said, "make exports to the US unfeasible", and some producers have already paused production that would be bound for the US.

At the same time, producers are scaling up efforts to supply more beef to China, Southeast Asia and the Middle East — regions where Brazilian meat already holds a market share.

"We have two paths we must follow simultaneously: try to understand what has changed and how we can adjust our bilateral agreements and, having been surprised by the measure adopted, talk to other partners to expand (and) diversify the buyer base for each product or service and, at the same time, develop new commercial agreements," said Ricardo Teixeira, a professor and coordinator of the MBA program in financial management at Strong FGV, a Brazilian think tank.

"This episode will certainly bring two major economies like Brazil and China closer together, as well as other nations that were surprised by unilateral rule changes by a globally important partner," said Teixeira.

China is by far Brazil's largest beef customer. In 2024, Brazil exported about 1.3 million metric tons of beef to China worth roughly $6 billion, according to the country's Foreign Trade Secretariat.

"The future of (Brazil's) beef market is seen as being in Asia and not in the US," said Javier Vadell, professor of international relations and chair of the Contemporary China department at the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais.

Brazilian exporters emphasize that the structure of demand in China is especially attractive.

"The Chinese market has big margins," Vadell noted.

Brazil's beef industry, which reached record export volumes in 2023, is seen as a cornerstone of the country's agricultural export economy. The new US tariffs could threaten, or even derail, that momentum.

Threats from the US, regardless of whether they come to pass, "create a situation of complete uncertainty" that is pushing countries like Brazil to other partners "that respect the rules".

The shift in strategy is also a reflection of diminishing faith in the World Trade Organization as a forum for resolving trade disputes. "One challenge is that the WTO has been sidelined," said Vadell.

The writer is a freelance journalist for China Daily.