Ministry of Finance publishes first PARC report to improve ANTAQ regulation

On November 27, 2025, the Brazilian Secretariat for Economic Reforms (“SRE”) of the Ministry of Finance published the first report regarding the initial cycle of the Regulatory and Competition Assessment Procedure (“PARC”). PARC was established earlier this year to identify potentially anticompetitive regulatory practices and, if necessary, suggest a review of such rules.

The report analyzes Resolution No. 109 of the Brazilian National Waterway Transportation Agency (“ANTAQ”), dated November 17, 2023, which regulates the charging of the non-invasive inspection port service, following a contribution made by the Port Users Association of Bahia (“Usuport-BA”) under Public Call SRE/MF No. 01/2025. On that occasion, Usuport-BA raised concerns about potential competitive impacts arising from the repeated creation of fees for port services.

According to the SRE’s analysis, the current framework contains deficiencies that favor specific economic agents and create distortions in competition within the sector. As a result, the report recommends:

• Assessing the implementation of a regulatory impact study to identify dysfunctions in the current framework;
• Upholding regulation proposals that allow for investigating abusive practices, monitoring infractions, and holding offenders accountable; and
• Transitioning to a price cap model or including non-invasive inspection in the service package (box rate).

The Ministry of Finance is still assessing five other studies under PARC related to the energy, financial, and healthcare sectors.

For more information, access the report in full.

Demarest’s Competition team is available to provide further clarification.