US Tariffs Target Brazil's Pix, Raising Stakes for Card Networks

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) took final action on 15 Jul following a Section 301 investigation under the Trade Act of 1974. USTR identified Pix as one of six issue areas in the finding, alongside preferential tariffs, anti-corruption backsliding, intellectual property protection, ethanol market access and illegal deforestation. A defined list of goods is exempt, including beef, coffee, aircraft parts, petroleum products, pig iron and rare earths.

The action puts a state-run payment rail at the centre of a trade dispute, even as stablecoin issuers – companies that issue tokens pegged to a fiat currency – pitch onchain settlement as a cheaper alternative to card networks.

Low-cost local system

Pix is used by more than three-quarters of Brazil's population of around 211mn, according to the Central Bank of Brazil (BCB), which owns, operates and regulates the system. Pix costs merchants an average of 0.33%, compared with 1.13% for debit cards and 2.34% for credit cards, according to an International Monetary Fund paper, though pricing is set by payment service providers and acquirers rather than by the BCB. It is free for consumers.

A state-run system that charges a fraction of card fees and settles outside card networks – the rails that route and clear card payments – competes directly for the transactions those networks earn fees on. Visa and Mastercard did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Greer leaves the door open

Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said "extensive negotiations" with Brazil over the past year had not resolved the issues identified in the investigation, adding that the US would "remain open to continuing negotiations."

In a 91-page submission to USTR on 18 Aug 2025, filed at the investigation's comment stage and signed by Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira, Brazil's Foreign Ministry argued that central bank administration ensures neutrality in the instant payment system and does not discriminate against foreign companies. It noted that the EU, India and the US all provide instant payment infrastructure, singling out the Federal Reserve's FedNow as functionally similar to Pix.

The ministry also said it does not recognize the legitimacy of unilateral instruments such as Section 301, which it considers inconsistent with WTO rules and the organization's dispute settlement system.

Owned, operated and regulated

The core of the US argument is that the BCB owns and operates Pix while regulating electronic payments. USTR found this dual role creates a conflict of interest absent adequate procedural safeguards, citing rules that mandate Pix acceptance by institutions with more than 500k accounts and require it to be displayed no less prominently than competing services.

Pix is also moving deeper into use cases traditionally dominated by credit and debit cards. Pix Automático, which lets merchants collect recurring payments such as subscriptions and utility bills, started on 16 Jun 2025. Pix Parcelado, which splits a single payment into instalments, went live in April 2025, with standardized rules from late October 2025 and an adaptation period that ran to March 2026.

Digital payments as trade

India runs a comparable central bank-backed rail, Unified Payments Interface (UPI). Brazil recorded 63.5bn Pix transactions in 2024, according to the BCB. UPI processed 16.6bn transactions in February 2026 alone, an annualized pace of close to 200bn.

The US has not specifically targeted UPI but has flagged it as favouring domestic schemes over foreign electronic payment firms, though two US-owned suppliers processed more than 80% of UPI transactions as of 31 Dec 2025. 

Pix compresses merchant fees by routing around the intermediaries stablecoin issuers also promise to remove.