By Christopher Graeme Posted 19 Fevereiro, 2025 In Commerce, Companies, Exports, External trade, News, Tarrifs
The dispatch of products with export documents or as a result of manufacturing work ordered in Portugal for re-export to the US have skyrocketed since the reelection of Donald Trump.
According to the National Statistics Institute (INE), in the last quarter of 2024 these types of commercial exchanges increased 1,600% like-for-like on the previous year caused by the growing threat of protectionism.
Between October and December, Portugal imported €31.6 million worth of goods and products from the United States destined to be resold back to the US after being manufactured or processed in Portugal.
Products are often manufactured, processed or transformed in Portugal for added value reasons (I.e cheaper production and labour costs) as requested by US clients.
However, Portugal does not hold ownership of such products since no traditional commercial purchase and sale exchanges are involved, but rather the execution of services.
In Q4, 2023 Portugal had received €1.8 million worth of goods from the US for the same reason.
In other words, the amount of goods imported from the US into Portugal for manufacturing or processing in Portugal was 17 times more than in the last quarter of 2023.
Orders from the US have increased in importance in terms of the commercial exchange between the two countries, up 4.5% last year.
Just in terms of integrated circuits alone, the US sent €23.6 million worth of products to Portugal while the value of orders of goods sent from the US for processing, manufacturing or transformation in Portugal shot up to €31.6 million.
In the last quarter of 2024 these types of commercial imports from the US increased to 4.5% of the €705 million of all goods imported.