The Mexican government launched a new tariff program to apply duties from 20 to 50 percent to steel products imported from countries with which it does not have a free trade agreement. The new tariffs will be applied until April 2026 to 99 tariff items of Chapter 72 (casting, iron and steel) and 127 tariff items of Chapter 73 (casting, iron or steel manufacturers).
With a program to promote local production, the Ministry of Economy today published the presidential decree to “establish temporary tariffs, between 5.0 percent and 50.0 percent, on the import of goods classified into 544 tariff fractions related to steel, aluminum, textiles, clothing, footwear, wood, plastic and its manufactures, chemical products, paper and cardboard, ceramic products, glass and its manufactures, electrical equipment, transport equipment, musical instruments, furniture, among others," the agency published in the official Mexican gazette (DOF).
The new tariffs are to “provide certainty and fair market conditions to the sectors of the national industry that face situations of vulnerability, derived from practices that alter and affect international trade and, thus, promote the development of the national industry and support the internal market,” reported the Ministry of Economy.
This new package of tariffs comes eight months after the government launched on August 16, 2023, a package of temporary tariffs of 25 percent on imports to 392 tariff fractions, of which 201 fractions were for products related to steel. All for countries with which Mexico does not have a free trade agreement. Its validity is until July 31, 2025.
Of the new package, there are only two tariff fractions with 50 percent, which are for imported wire rod under fraction 7213.91.03 circular product with a diameter less than 14 millimeters and for fraction 7213.99.99 which corresponds to wire rod “from others.”
With a tariff of 35 percent there are 346 tariff fractions, of which 81 fractions are from Chapter 73 and 22 tariff fractions from Chapter 72.
Another 17 tariff sections have a tariff of 30 percent, of which two are from Chapter 73: 7317.00.01 nails for shoeing and 7326.20.06 referring to manufactures of iron or steel wire.
Another 167 tariff sections have a tariff of 25 percent, of which 74 tariff sections are from Chapter 72 and 44 tariff sections from Chapter 73.
With a 20 percent tariff, there are four tariff sections, of which there is only one from Chapter 72: 7220.20.03.
In addition, there are two tariff fractions with a 15 percent tariff, three fractions with a 10 percent tariff and three fractions with a 5.0 percent tariff.
These trade measures, according to experts, are to avoid the imposition of tariffs by the United States. In March 2018, it imposed tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on exported Mexican aluminum, this under Section 232 of its Trade Expansion Act of 1962.
Congressmen from both chambers and both political parties have pointed out that Mexico is triangulating steel from China to the United States. Currently, there is already a bill to apply the 232 tariffs to Mexico.