NCM stands for Nomenclatura Comum do Mercosul, the common classification code of the Mercosur trade bloc. Brazil uses it for every import. The number runs to eight digits, and it determines the federal taxes, the state tax position, and whether another agency has to approve the import before it clears.

For anyone shipping regularly to the US and Brazil, the practical point is this: the NCM is not the HTS code. They align at the first six digits because both come from the same international system, and they diverge after that.

How the Number Is Built

Digits What they do
1–2 Chapter, broad product family
3–4 Heading
5–6 Subheading, the internationally agreed part
7–8 Mercosur-specific detail

The first six digits are the same as the international HS and, in many cases, the same as the first six of the US HTS. The last two are where Brazil and the US part company.

What the NCM Decides

The code is not just a duty rate. Three things follow from it:

Federal taxes. Import duty, and the federal taxes that are calculated on top of it, all key off the NCM.

State tax position. The state VAT rate and the rules that apply to the transaction depend on the classification.

Whether approval is required. Several agencies have lists of NCM codes that trigger a review before the goods can clear — health, standards, and environmental bodies all operate this way. A wrong code can mean a required approval is missed entirely, and the goods clear when they should not have.

Why It Cannot Be Copied From the US

The common and expensive shortcut is to take the US HTS code, drop the last two digits, and use that as the NCM.

It sometimes works. It fails often enough to be dangerous, because:

  • Mercosur splits some subheadings differently from the US
  • The Brazilian requirement attaches to the eight-digit NCM, not the six-digit international line
  • Two products that share six digits in both systems can have different agency requirements

The classification has to be done for Brazil, for the product, on its own terms.

What Goes Wrong

Wrong code, right duty. The goods clear and the tax is close enough that nobody notices. Then an audit reaches back.

Wrong code, missing approval. A required agency review is not triggered. The goods release and the problem appears later, when they are already in the country.

Wrong code at shipment level. The import record is wrong, and correcting it after the fact is a formal process, not an edit.

A code copied from a similar product. Two products in the same family can sit on different NCM codes with different tax totals.

The Practical Approach

Classify from the product itself: what it is, what it is made of, what it does, and how it is presented. Then verify the result against the Brazilian tariff structure rather than against the US one.

For products where the answer is genuinely unclear, ask for a written classification opinion before the goods ship. The cost of that is far below the cost of a wrong code found later.

Key Facts

  • NCM = Nomenclatura Comum do Mercosul, eight digits.
  • The NCM is not the HTS code. They match at six digits and diverge at eight.
  • The NCM decides federal taxes, the state tax position, and whether agency approval is required.
  • A wrong code can mean a required approval is missed, not just a wrong duty figure.
  • Do not derive the NCM by dropping digits from the HTS.
  • For unclear products, get a written classification opinion before shipping.

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