The National Chamber of the Iron and Steel Industry (Canacero) rejected the imposition of 25% tariffs on steel imports by the United States and asked the Mexican government to “take urgent trade defense measures to protect the national industry.”
In a statement, the organization expressed its “deep disagreement” with the unilateral decision by the U.S. government, a measure that, it noted, will seriously affect the steel industry and the entire metalworking chain in North America , putting competitiveness and regional integration at risk.
“The tariffs threaten 75% of Mexican steel exports, valued at 2.1 billion dollars, putting key jobs and investments in our country at risk,” Canacero added.
He said that if Mexican steel is not excluded from tariffs, it will be necessary to apply reciprocal reprisals on steel products from our northern neighbor .
In this regard, he stated that “the Mexican steel industry supports the efforts of the Government of Mexico to ensure that economic reason prevails and achieve the definitive exclusion of Mexico from the executive order recently communicated by the United States government.”
He added that in the face of the threat of excess capacity in China and Southeast Asia, a high level of productive integration between the two countries and regional benefits must prevail.
The statement said that the steel trade balance between the United States and Mexico reflects a surplus of 2.3 million tons in favor of the United States at the end of 2024, “so there is no justification for the imposition of tariffs on Mexican steel.”
On February 10, Donald Trump , President of the United States, announced that he had signed two executive orders to impose 25% tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, a rate that will apply to all countries and will affect its trading partners in the region, such as Mexico and Canada.
These measures will come into effect on March 12 of this year.
In response to this, on Tuesday at the morning conference, Marcelo Ebrard , head of the Ministry of Economy in Mexico, described the measure as a “bad and unjustifiable idea ,” since the United States exports more to the country than it imports, and will therefore seek dialogue with trade authorities from its northern neighbor.
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