Mexican industrial trade group Concamin and local steel association Canacero have urged the nation’s government to take “urgent actions” to protect the Mexican steel sector, following the US Section 232 tariffs.
In a joint letter, the two trade groups urged for Mexico’s government to “intervene” in what they labeled as an “unsustainable situation.”
Concamin and Canacero expressed concern that negotiations for a trilateral trade agreement between the US, Mexico and Canada, also known as the USMCA trade agreement, did not suspend the steel tariffs.
“Additionally, (Mexico) hasn’t imposed similar duties to the US, which would allow our steel industry to compete equally under the same circumstances with the North American steel,” the letter said.
The letter said US steel exports to Mexico continued, while Mexican steel exports to the US “dropped 30 percent, further deepening Mexico’s steel trade deficit with the US.”
The letter did not provide further figures, nor described the comparative period. The two associations demanded the exclusion of Mexico from Section 232. The trade groups also suggested that Mexico impose further duties to the US steel exported to Mexico for the “same products, imports tariffs,” with “no exception mechanisms.”
Concamin and Canacero also urged Mexico’s economy secretariat, SE, to exclude any preferred status to the US exports to Mexico.