Brazil’s banking sector has been grappling with a sharp rise in defaults in agribusiness in recent months. Despite expectations for record corn production and a strong soybean harvest in 2025, a mix of pressures has worsened financial stress across the sector. The downturn began with falling commodity prices, which squeezed margins of highly leveraged farmers who had borrowed when Brazil’s Selic rate was at historic lows in 2020 and 2021.

Brazil is engaged in a "constructive dialogue" with Canada to resume negotiations for a free trade agreement between South America's Mercosur bloc and Ottawa, the Brazilian Foreign Trade Secretary said, Reuters reported. Canadian officials are due to visit Brazil in late August, according to Tatiana Prazeres, Brazil's Foreign Trade Secretary, who shared details of the visit in a written response to Reuters this week.

A Rio de Janeiro court suspended the enforceability of obligations set out in Oi SA’s judicial recovery plan in Brazil, opening the way for the company to potentially seek a chapter 11 filing in the U.S., Bloomberg News reported. The court’s decision prevents the imposition of any liens or claims on the troubled Brazilian telecom operator’s assets from Aug. 13 to Aug. 31, the filing reads. It also required the company to present a transition plan to ensure the continuity of its public services.

Brazilian miner Samarco, a joint venture between Vale and BHP, has received approval from a court in Minas Gerais state to exit bankruptcy protection proceedings, it said in a statement on Tuesday, Reuters reported. The process allowed Samarco to reorganize more than 50 billion reais ($9.28 billion) in liabilities involving around 10,000 creditors, the statement said.

The Brazilian government on Wednesday unveiled a plan to support local exporters affected by a 50% tariff imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on several products from the South American nation, the Associated Press reported. Dubbed “Sovereign Brazil," the plan provides for a credit lifeline of 30 billion reais ($5.5 billion), among other measures. Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva described the plan, which includes a bill to be sent to Congress, as a first step to help local exporters.

Brazil's government believes the economy is starting to feel the effects of high interest rates and will closely monitor data to see if those impacts are "wider than initially expected," Economic Policy Secretary Guilherme Mello said on Friday, Reuters reported. Brazil's central bank last week held its benchmark rate at 15%, the highest in almost two decades, pausing an aggressive tightening cycle after seven consecutive hikes aimed at fighting sticky inflation, which should cool down economic activity.

Brazil's seafood industry is sounding the alarm to pressure the federal government for immediate relief as it grapples with mounting fears of job losses and bankruptcies as a result of the 50% tariffs the U.S. imposed on most Brazilian exports on Wednesday, Reuters reported. The new levies made the future highly uncertain for Brazilian fishing companies, which sell close to $400 million worth of seafood to the U.S. a year, or about 70% of the sector's annual exports.

Brazil's government has set aside for now plans for direct retaliation against steep U.S. tariffs taking effect this week, focusing instead on a relief package for industries hit hardest by the levies, Reuters reported. Wide-ranging exemptions granted in U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order last week spared some of the most vulnerable sectors of Latin America's largest economy, to the relief of many investors and business leaders.

Brazilian airline Azul said it signed an agreement with certain stakeholders for a $650 million investment in a future capitalization deal, according to a late Friday securities filing, Reuters reported. The airline's so-called "backstop commitment agreement" must be approved by the U.S. court overseeing its bankruptcy proceedings, the filing said. In May, Azul filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the United States after months of trying to restructure mostly pandemic-era debt. Read more.

Distressed Brazilian telecom operator Oi SA is preparing a chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in a US court, Bloomberg News reported. The company is working with law firm White & Case LLP, the people said, asking not to be named discussing private details. The company will probably file as soon as its ongoing chapter 15 process is canceled. (Subscription required.) Read more.