Just in the week in which the Ministry of Economy updated its monthly monitoring of foreign investment announcements, Mexico Not only has it established itself as a reliable destination for nearshoringbut chose to be a condescending trading partner of the United States.
This is evidenced by the measures taken by the US, jointly with the Mexican government, to combat unfair imports and the “unfair” trade of steel and aluminum, mainly from China.
The White House announcement Wednesday, that will apply tariffs of 25 percent to steel from Mexico that has not been melted and dumped in our country, in the United States or in Canada – the three T-MEC partners – and 10 percent to aluminum melted in China, Russia, Iran or Belarus that reaches the US through Mexico, marks a new stage.
The brand because makes clear Mexico’s role as an ally of the US in its trade war against Chinawhich has the presidential race as its backdrop.
According to senior Biden administration officials, about 13 percent of the steel that arrives annually in the U.S. from Mexico, equivalent to 500,000 tons, does not meet the requirement of melting and pouring in any of the three USMCA countries.
At his morning press conference on Thursday, the president Lopez Obrador admitted that Mexico agreed with the government of EU is escalating tradesetting two conditions:
“One, that there would be no mention of countries, that the resolution would not have a dedication, and it was accepted. And the second is that, in the case of Mexico, due to a very special situation, steel and aluminum from Brazil are required, and we have a very good relationship with Brazil and it was agreed that Brazil will have special treatment in the case of steel imports, of steel from Brazil to Mexico that may have components and aluminum that may have components that originate in Brazil, that was what was achieved,” said AMLO.
After the Biden administration took these measures with Mexico, the Mexican industrial sector expressed its concern.
The Confederation of Industrial Chambers considered that the new actions on steel and aluminum announced midweek have a direct impact on some productive sectors of the country, whose finished products incorporate these materials.
For its part, the Chamber of the Manufacturing Industry of Nuevo Leon warned that numerous Mexican products with semi-finished steel components are currently detained at the border due to the imposition of tariffs.
The Secretary of Economy, Rachel Buenrostro, confirmed that US actions on its imports of steel and aluminum from Mexico were the result of a bilateral agreementwhich should not trigger “mirror measures” on the part of the Mexican government.
He also said that the decision was not unilateral by the government, but rather the result of extensive dialogue with the Mexican private sector.
According to experts consulted by this reporter, Tariff measures will have implications for the review of the USMCA in 2026such as generating a system to determine the content of steel products ‘similar’ to that of automobiles and new rules for marking of origin.
This would demonstrate what the White House and the American steel industry claim: Mexico ‘triangulates’ around 13 percent of the steel it exports to its northern neighbor.
In its trade war against Chinawhich has been moving into the political-electoral arena for months, EU already has Mexico as an ally.
