Thirty-five percent at midnight: Brazil's rough rides free
A 25% Section 301 tariff on Brazilian goods takes effect July 23, stacking to 35% on polished stones and finished jewelry. Rough gemstones and unwrought precious metals are exempt, and the math may soon read 37.5%.
By The Color Desk
What changed
At 12:01 a.m. Eastern time on July 23, Brazilian goods entering the United States pick up a new 25% tariff under Section 301 of the Trade Act, the result of a year-long administration investigation that found Brazilian policies unreasonable burdens on US commerce.
What it means
- Dealers holding polished Brazilian inventory stateside just watched its replacement cost jump by a third, and Paraíba, already the most supply-starved stone in the colored market, now has a customs multiplier on top of its scarcity one. Expect landed prices to move within weeks, and expect the phrase 'pre-tariff goods' to start appearing in dealer offers.
- It will occasionally even be true.
Key figures
| SECTION 301 TARIFF | 25% |
|---|---|
| WITH EXISTING 10% | 35% |
| IF FORCED-LABOR 12.5% LANDS | 37.5% |
| ROUGH, HTS 7103.10 | 0% |
Source: The stack, effective July 23
Midnight, July 23
Layered on the existing 10% Section 122 duty, the effective rate on most Brazilian jewelry goods becomes 35% overnight. For a trade that prices in single percentage points, it is the largest single repricing of a major gem source since the 2025 tariff rounds.
What a Brazilian stone pays at the border · percent duty
Source: The stack, effective July 23
The carve-outs are the strategy
The carve-outs are where the strategy lives. Rough gemstones under HTS codes 7103.10.20 and 7103.10.40 are exempt, as are precious metals in unwrought and semi-manufactured form: silver, gold, platinum, palladium and rhodium all pass free. What pays is everything Brazil adds value to at home: cut and polished stones, and finished jewelry.
Sara Yood of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee noted the metals exemptions are "pretty broad" and consistent with prior policy, while confirming the polished and finished categories enjoy no such relief.
The arithmetic has a second act. The current 10% Section 122 tariff expires July 24, and a separate 12.5% duty tied to the administration's forced-labor investigation, which surveyed 60 countries and found Brazil among 54 falling short on enforcement, is waiting in the wings. When that activates, the combined rate lands at 37.5%.
Importers are effectively being asked to plan around three different totals inside a single season.
| Figure | |
|---|---|
| Finished Jewelry | 35% |
| Cut & Polished Gems | 35% |
| Unwrought Precious Metal | 0% |
| Rough Gemstones | 0% |
Value added in Brazil is what the tariff taxes The border prices the lapidary, not the stone. Carat Capital graphics desk.
Paraíba gets a multiplier
What this means at the counter depends on the stone. Brazil is the world's dominant source of fine tourmaline, including Paraíba, and a major supplier of aquamarine, topaz, amethyst and citrine, with a cutting industry centered on Minas Gerais that has spent decades moving up the value chain.
The exemption structure now pushes directly against that: rough leaving Brazil for cutting in the US or Asia travels duty-free, while a stone finished by a Brazilian lapidary pays 35% at the American border. The tariff, whatever its intent, is a subsidy for cutting Brazilian stones anywhere except Brazil.
The story so far
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Method
Value added in Brazil is what the tariff taxes