What the EU agreement changes for Espírito Santo stone

The Mercosur–EU agreement has been in force since 1 May. For the ornamental stone industry of Espírito Santo, the direct tariff gain is small — which is precisely why this briefing exists: what the agreement really moves sits in three other places, and two of them are on a clock.

Herculano Pelição Batista · International Relations Consulting
Public sources consulted in August 2026 · 14 references at the end
Sample document: sector analysis, not advice for a specific company

01Where the sector stands

2025 closed at a record despite the US tariff shock — and that combination is the most important data point here. The United States is the leading destination: 44.2% of Brazilian sector exports in September 2025, and historically around 60% of what leaves Espírito Santo. China and Mexico follow.

On 6 August 2025 the 50% US tariff on Brazilian goods took effect. The sector partly escaped: worked monumental stone for construction — which covers quartzite, 55% of Brazil's exports — landed on the exemption list, while marble and granite stayed taxed. In 2026, following a US Supreme Court ruling, stone began competing under an across-the-board rate of 10%, possibly 15%.

02What the agreement does — and does not do

Start with what does not change much. The European tariff on worked stone was already low: the worked granite line runs at about 1.7%. An exporter expecting a competitiveness leap from tariff elimination alone will be disappointed — and it is honest to say so before any company builds a plan on it.

Three things do change, and they are worth more than the tariff:

• Capital goods. The schedule takes duties on European industrial machinery and equipment to zero over 4 to 10 years. Gang saws, polishing lines, resin treatment, CNC: the modernisation of the local plant base is heavily European in origin, and the capex bill falls on a published calendar. This is the large gain, and it belongs to the importer, not the exporter.
• Predictable access. The EU removes tariffs on roughly 95% of goods, in baskets of 4 to 16 years. Less valuable than the immediate benefit is the calendar itself: you can plan a multi-year contract with a European buyer knowing what happens to their landed cost.
• Relative position. Stone competitors without an EU agreement — India, Turkey, China — now face a Brazilian who has one. On a thin-margin product, 1.7% decides the order.

03What is in force and what is not

Here sits the most common error in the market right now: treating "agreement signed" as "whole agreement in force". It is not.

Operational consequence: any price projection for 2027 or 2028 must be built tariff line by tariff line, with the schedule in hand. Brazil's Siscomex portal publishes the tariff phase-out manual, the rules of origin manual and preference tables by NCM and CN code; the EU offers the ROSA tool within Access2Markets for self-assessment of eligibility. Both are free and both are primary sources — unlike a newspaper article.

04The new obligation almost nobody has built yet

The ITA adopts exporter self-certification of origin, with a five-year transition. It sounds easier than it is: instead of obtaining a certificate, the company declares origin — and carries the burden of proof.

• Auditable proof of origin kept for three years.
• Supplier traceability: where the block came from, who processed it, where imported input entered.
• Calculation and record of regional content, per the product-specific origin requirements by HS code.
• Consequence of failure: retroactive denial of the benefit and European customs penalties.

For stone quarried and processed in the same state, meeting origin is technically trivial — the product is Brazilian by definition. The risk is not substantive, it is documentary. It is the kind of requirement that trips nobody on the first shipment and charges dearly at an audit two years later. Building the file now is cheap; reconstructing it under inspection costs the entire benefit.

05The real barrier: CE marking changed regulation

A natural stone slab sold in Europe is a construction product, and a construction product requires CE marking and a declaration of performance — under harmonised standards such as EN 1469 (cladding) and EN 12058 (floor and stair tiles), whose Annex ZA sets out the essential characteristics the manufacturer must declare.

What changed: the new Regulation (EU) 2024/3110 became applicable on 8 January 2026, progressively replacing Regulation 305/2011, with both regimes coexisting until 31 December 2030. It adds obligations on performance-based labelling, use and safety information, and introduces the digital product passport.

06What to do in the next 90 days

A sequence for a mid-sized company in the cluster, in ascending order of cost:

07Limits of this analysis

This is a sample sector briefing built on public sources consulted in August 2026. Three caveats a company should take seriously before deciding anything: (i) the 1.7% rate cited refers to the worked granite line and varies by subheading, finish and product form — verification is per tariff line, in TARIC and ROSA, never by analogy; (ii) the 2026 US tariff picture stems from a recent court ruling and remains subject to change; (iii) no projection here replaces the opinion of a customs broker, a testing laboratory or a lawyer — this document's job is to say where to look and in what order, not to issue the technical act.

References

1. Revista Minérios — Exportações brasileiras de rochas ornamentais ultrapassam US$ 1 bi
2. ES Brasil — Balanço das exportações capixabas de rochas, 2025
3. Governo do ES — Maior exportador de rochas ornamentais do Brasil
4. Findes — ES líder nacional em exportação de rochas
5. ANM — Brasil entre os líderes globais em rochas naturais
6. O Tempo — Como o setor de rochas escapou do auge do tarifaço
7. ES Brasil — Exportações sobem mesmo com tarifaço
8. Siscomex — Acordo Mercosul–União Europeia: textos, manuais e preferências por NCM
9. Grupo Serpa — O que está em vigor desde 1º de maio, e o que ainda não está
10. Tax Group — Cronograma de desgravação e bens de capital
11. Senado Notícias — Acordo Mercosul–UE entra em vigor
12. EUR-Lex — Regulamento (UE) 2024/3110
13. APCER — Novo Regulamento dos Produtos da Construção: o que muda
14. Frontwave — Marcação CE para produtos de pedra natural (EN 1469, EN 12058)

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