US senators from both parties again asked the Joe Biden administration to reinstate the 25 percent Section 232 tariffs on Mexican steel to protect the national steel industry from illegal or tariff-free imports of Chinese steel shipped from Mexico.
“Imports of Mexican steel are now surging far in excess of historical levels of trade. Imports of Mexican steel conduit have soared to around 500 percent over the 2015-2017 baseline and may rise to 700 percent this year,” says the letter sent to Biden and signed by Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Mike Braun (R-Indiana) and Bob Casey (D-Pa.).
They recalled that in March 2018, the 25 percent tariff was applied to Mexican steel, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 to protect the industrial security of the United States. In 2019, Mexico and the United States reached an agreement to exempt the tariff and Mexico committed that in the event of a sudden increase, the tariff would be reimposed.
According to the congressmen, “communist China” is avoiding US tariffs by moving its production to Mexico, which benefits from the free trade agreement between the United States, Mexico and Canada (USMCA). Meanwhile, Mexico continues to increase its steel exports to the United States in contravention of the 2019 steel agreement.
“These trade abuses threaten American production” of steel, the letter says.