High US tariffs will hurt Brazil’s leather sector
Figures for the first half of 2025 suggest that the punitive 50% tariff rates that the US has threatened to impose on Brazil would have a major effect on the South American country’s leather industry.
National leather industry body CICB has shared figures for the first six months of 2025 that put the value of Brazil’s exports of hides and skins at $572.4 million, a decline of 11.8% compared to the same period in 2024.
The US was the second-most important market for these exports, although a long way behind China.
In the first six months of this year, Brazilian packers, traders and tanners shipped hides and skins worth $178.2 million to China, compared to material worth $78 million to the US.
If the threat from US president, Donald Trump, to apply 50% tariffs to all imports from Brazil from August 1 goes ahead, Brazilian hides and skins will become much more expensive for buyers in the US.
