In brief

The Secretariat of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Trade and Services (“SECEX“, in its Portuguese acronym), by means of Circular No. 12, published on 10 April 2023, set a 30-day deadline (extended for additional 30 days by means of Circular No. 14, published on 27 April 2023) to gather contributions from the civil society regarding the draft ordinance that provides for new procedures for the assessment of public interest (API) in the context of trade defense measures (“New Ordinance“). The proposal entails comprehensive changes in both the API legal institute and its current procedure.

If adopted, the New Ordinance will fully revoke the current SECEX Ordinance No. 13/2020, as amended by SECEX Ordinance No. 237/2023 (link).

Deadline for contributions

Contributions to the public consultation must be submitted until 15 June 2023, through the “Participa + Brasil” platform (link)

The draft of the New Ordinance is available at this link.

API: Main changes under discussion

The Anti-dumping and Subsidies Decrees (Decrees No. 8,058/2013 and No. 10,839/2021) authorizes, under extraordinary circumstances, the suspension or amendment of definitive anti-dumping and countervailing measures, and the non-imposition of such measures on a provisional basis, for public interest reasons.

Should the New Ordinance be approved, it would significantly change the current API regime, a tool to which Brazilian companies resort in the context of trade defense investigations. The comparative chart below summarizes the most important aspects of the reform proposed by SECEX: