Importer of record in Brazil: what exists and what does not

The short answer

A foreign company cannot itself be the importer in Brazil. Siscomex habilitação is available to Brazilian legal entities and to individuals acting in their own name, and the Receita Federal's own list of purposes for which a foreign company may hold a CNPJ does not include import activity (see RADAR and Siscomex for the full sourcing on that point). What exists instead are two structures, por conta e ordem de terceiro and por encomenda, under which a Brazilian company clears customs on behalf of another Brazilian company. Both keep the Brazilian party in the declaration; neither substitutes for a foreign supplier having its own presence.

Por conta e ordem de terceiro

Under IN RFB 1.861/2018 article 2, one Brazilian company, typically a trading company set up for this purpose, clears customs in its own name for goods that a different Brazilian company, the adquirente, bought abroad. The trading company is the one that appears on the declaration, but the adquirente is the one whose RADAR limit is consumed by the transaction, under IN RFB 1.984/2020 article 17 §2-3. In practical terms, the adquirente is the real economic buyer; the trading company provides the accreditation and the customs process.

Por encomenda

Under article 3 of the same instruction, the structure runs the other way. The Brazilian importer buys the goods abroad with its own funds and imports them in its own name, then resells to a pre-agreed Brazilian company, the encomendante, under a standing arrangement. The importer owns the goods throughout the process and pays the foreign supplier directly; the encomendante only enters the picture at the resale.

In both structures, whether registering the specific relationship in Portal Único changes anything about who bears customs liability was not independently confirmed while preparing this page; treat that detail as worth checking case by case rather than assumed.

Why the US/EU model does not transfer

An importer of record in the US or the EU can be a service provider with no ownership stake in the goods, acting purely as the compliance layer between a foreign seller and the destination country's customs authority. Brazil's system does not offer an equivalent role. Customs and tax liability under either Brazilian structure sits with a Brazilian CNPJ holder that is genuinely a party to the transaction, either as the buyer (conta e ordem) or as the owner reselling under a standing agreement (por encomenda), not as a pass-through compliance service. A foreign exporter looking for a Brazilian equivalent of a US-style IOR is looking for something the system does not provide.

The practical routes for a foreign exporter without a Brazilian entity

1. Sell to a Brazilian buyer or distributor that imports directly, holding its own RADAR accreditation. This is the simplest structure and the one most sourcing relationships already use.
2. Sell to a Brazilian buyer or distributor that engages a trading company under conta e ordem or por encomenda, where the buyer wants the customs process handled by a specialist rather than run in-house.
3. Open your own Brazilian entity, an Ltda or SLU, and become the importer yourself. See setting up a Brazilian company as a foreign founder for what that takes.

Choosing between routes 1 and 3 is exactly the question the market entry assessment answers for a specific product and volume: whether the numbers justify an entity, or whether a Brazilian buyer or distributor is the right structure for now. Our role, in either case, is identifying and vetting the Brazilian buyer or distributor, and the trading company behind it where one is used; we are not the importer.

Sources

• Accreditation limited to Brazilian entities and individuals: IN RFB 1.984/2020, as described on RADAR and Siscomex, which carries the full sourcing on this point.
• Conta e ordem de terceiro and por encomenda: Instrução Normativa RFB nº 1.861/2018, articles 2 and 3, reached through a legal database reproduction (normas.receita.fazenda.gov.br blocks automated access; the consolidated text via legisweb.com.br was used instead).
• RADAR limit consumption at the adquirente: IN RFB 1.984/2020, article 17 §2-3.

Facts on this page were checked 23-24 September 2026. Registration of the specific conta e ordem or por encomenda relationship in Portal Único was not independently confirmed; check current practice with a licensed customs broker before structuring a specific deal on the assumption stated here.