Zekelman, one of the largest independent steel pipe and tube manufacturers in the United States, filed a lawsuit in a US court against Mexico, accusing it of violating the USMCA and marketing steel at dumping prices in the local market, the company said in a statement.
Mexico's conduct, Zekelman said, led to the closure of one of its pipe plants in 2022 in Long Beach, California and will also lead to the upcoming closure of its nearly 150-year-old pipe plant in Chicago, Illinois (Wheatland Tube) in 2025. The two plants will lay off 400 workers.
In addition, he said that the lawsuit shows that Mexico's conduct threatens the national security of the United States by harming domestic steel producers. For this reason, Zekelman also accused Mexico before the Office of Homeland Security of the United States and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit, Zekelman said, “forces Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to use the Office of Trade Relations to enforce trade agreements between the United States and Mexico”.