Mexico’s economy secretariat, SE, is expected to decide within a month if it will include other steel products to an existing 15 percent import tariff, Mexican media said on Wednesday.
According to media reports, SE could extend existing provisional duties of 15 percent over certain steel products, including slab, CRC, HRC, heavy plate and wire rod, to profiles, beams, and rebar, among others.
SE said it is internally analyzing the possibility, as it noted there was a change in the local steel market since March this year, as the price of some metals, including ferrous, declined 40 percent.
Recently, SE renewed the 15 percent tariff it had already applied for imports of slab, CRC, HRC, heavy plate and wire rod from other countries, especially from China, for six more months.
At the time, the government refused to add other products, such as profiles, beams, and rebar to the existing regulation. Ildefonso Guajardo, Mexico’s economy minister, said extending the duties to other products should be a “final resolution, which will be made when it’s time [to do so].”
Mexico's industrial association, Concamin, is said to have conducted a study to evaluate the impact that the inclusion of other steel products to the existing 15 percent import tariff would have on other sectors, including automotive and home appliances.