Mexican steel association Canacero has criticized this week a preliminary trade agreement reached between Mexico and the US. Mexico was the first country to reach a preliminary understanding with the US regarding NAFTA, although Donald Trump has avoided using the term NAFTA, instead referring to it as a bilateral trade agreement with Mexico.
“It is hard to understand how Mexico could accept to update the NAFTA (agreement) without solving Section 232,” Canacero said in a statement.
Canacero said Section 232 puts Mexican steel industry, a strategic industrial segment in Mexico, into disadvantage, adding that it is “incoherent with the principles of free trade.”
“(Section 232) can’t coexist with a NAFTA 2.0 (agreement), since it’s a precedent that makes it vulnerable and puts free trade in the region at risk,” Canacero argued.
Canacero urged the Mexican government to exclude Mexico from Section 232 during trade talks.