Mexico responds to Trump’s trade war measures with tariffs on US goods

 

Mexico responds to Trump’s trade war measures with tariffs on US goods

By
Rafael Azul

9 June 2018

In what it described as a “measured and proportionate response” to steel and aluminum import tariffs announced a week ago by the US against Mexico, Canada and the European Union, the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto imposed tariffs on some 71 products that Mexico currently imports from the United States.

They include agricultural products, steel, manufactured products, and some consumer products, such as bourbon whiskey [previously exempt under the NAFTA free trade agreement], with a value of US$3 billion. Depending on the product, the tariffs will range from 7 to 25 percent. Mexico’s economy ministry said that it was suspending “preferential treatment” that those 71 commodities have had since 2003. The ministry indicated that the tariffs would remain in effect until the US government cancels tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum.

The US has imposed a 25 percent tariff on imported steel and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum. For Mexico, the effect will be felt in steel mills in Lázaro Cárdenas, in the state of Michoacán, and Monclova, in the state of Coahuila.

Mexico is a net importer of US steel, and most of the Mexican tariffs (56 out of 71) are directed against manufactured steel from the United States, including sheets, rolled steel, steel pipes, laminated steel and steel bars.

In addition to those 71 products from the US, Mexico also imposed tariffs on about 280 steel products that come from nations with which Mexico has no trade agreement, the ministry declared, supposedly to prevent the movement into Mexico of US products through third countries.

In addition to steel imports, Mexico imposed new tariffs on a range of manufactured products, ranging…

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