A vice president with Canacero, a trade association representing Mexico’s steel industry, has remarked that Mexico’s incoming government may react to United States tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum with identical tariffs on U.S. inbound metal.
As reported in an online article by the AluminiumInsider.com website and other media outlets, Canacero Vice President Raul Gutierrez said at an international economic development conference in late November that the new president will not be reluctant to impose retaliatory tariffs on imported U.S. steel and aluminum if the Trump administration does not take action soon.
Mexico’s incoming president, Andres Manual Lopez Obrador, “will apply resounding mirror measures” Gutierrez was quoted as saying at an Institute for Industrial Development and Economic Growth (IDIC) meeting in Mexico.
The Trump administration’s ongoing use of Section 232 (national security) measures to impose tariffs on imported metal from Mexico, Canada and other nations remained a point of contention as the U.S., Mexico and Canada prepared to finalize the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) as a replacement to NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement).