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US-China relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Brazil-China trade hits record US$171 billion in 2025 as US tariffs prompt export pivot

The US is a distant second in trade volume with Brazil as Beijing helps soften the impact of Washington’s levies

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A herd of cattle is seen at a farm in Sao Felix do Xingu, Para state, Brazil, in June last year. Total trade volume between Brazil and China rose 8.2 per cent year on year in 2025. Photo: AFP
Igor Patrickin Brasilia
Trade between Brazil and China hit a record US$171 billion in 2025, more than double Brazil’s total with the United States last year, as Chinese demand for Brazilian oil, farm goods and minerals surged and US tariffs on Brazilian exports nudged Brasilia to deepen ties with Beijing.

Washington imposed a sweeping 50 per cent tariff on a broad range of Brazilian products, citing political grievances linked to the prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro.

As Brazilian officials scrambled to protect key export sectors, China helped to soften the US blow by repeatedly signalling that it was ready to absorb more Brazilian goods, from coffee and oil to aircraft and industrial inputs.
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The latest figures, released by the China-Brazil Business Council on Wednesday, showed that trade between the two countries had reached a scale unmatched by any other Brazilian partnership, highlighting how geopolitical shocks were accelerating a long-term reorientation of Brazil’s external commerce.

According to the council’s full 2025 report, total trade volume between Brazil and China rose 8.2 per cent year on year to more than double the US$83 billion Brazil reported with its second-largest partner, the United States.

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Brazil recorded a US$29.1 billion trade surplus with China, accounting for 43 per cent of the country’s US$68.3 billion global surplus, extending a 17-year streak of positive balances with Beijing.

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