Canacero called for retaliatory tariffs as a countermeasure to the 25% across-the-board tariff ordered by President Donald Trump.
The European Union and other leading U.S. trading partners have criticized President Trump’s decision.
Trump decided to re-impose national security tariffs on steel and aluminum exports. The White House announced that these measures will take effect on March 12.
Retaliatory tariffs
On Monday, Trump signed proclamations increasing tariffs under Section 232. These tariffs, which were already imposed during his first administration, will be 25% on steel and aluminum. According to the White House, there will be no exceptions or exemptions to this new tariff.
During his first term, Trump applied tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum, but granted different exceptions to Brazil, South Korea, Argentina, Canada, Mexico, the European Union, Japan and the United Kingdom.
In response, Canacero requested retaliatory tariffs against steel imports from the United States.
“The Mexican steel industry rejects the imposition of tariffs by the United States and requests retaliatory tariffs on steel products if an exclusion for Mexico is not achieved,” Canacero said in a press release.
Canacero indicated that this measure will seriously affect the steel industry and the entire North American metal-mechanic chain, putting competitiveness and regional integration at risk.
“The steel trade balance between both countries reflects a surplus of 2.3 million tons in favor of the United States at the end of 2024, so there is no justification whatsoever for the imposition of tariffs on Mexican steel,” it added.
Steel origin
According to data from the U.S. Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMA), between January and October 2024, 83.1% of Mexican exports to the U.S. contain crude steel of Mexican origin. Furthermore, only 2.4% of these shipments include U.S. content, while China‘s contribution represents only 0.02%.
Canacero indicated that the Mexican steel industry supports the Mexican government’s efforts to ensure that “economic reason” prevails and to achieve the definitive exclusion of Mexico from the Executive Order recently communicated by the U.S. government.
“The high level of productive integration between both countries and the regional benefit should be a priority in the face of the threat of excess capacity from China and Southeast Asia,” he added.