Mexico announced on Wednesday new requirements for chinese steel imports in agreement with the United States.
It will also apply new regulations to Mexican aluminum imports.
The announcement of both measures was made in a joint statement issued by the President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and the President of the United States, Joe Biden.
On the one hand, to improve transparency on the origin of its steel imports, Mexico will require steel importers to indicate the country of the smelting and pouring test certificates.
On the other hand, Mexican aluminum imports must not contain primary aluminum for which the primary smelting country (largest smelting country), secondary smelting country (largest smelting country) or most recent smelting country is Belarus, China, Iran or Russia.
Chinese steel imports
Previously, last April, Mexico increased tariffs on imports of steel, aluminum and other products from countries with which it does not have a free trade agreement.
In particular, the new tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum products ranged from 25 to 50 percent.
Mexican steel imports were as follows in the last three years:
- 2021: US$28,585 million.
- 2022: US$33.561 billion.
- 2023: 34,648 million dollars.
According to the U.S. government, the PRC’s non-trade policies and practices are anything but fair, and have led to a global non-trade overcapacity crisis that poses an existential threat to the market-oriented U.S. steel and aluminum industries.
Aluminum
Mexican foreign purchases of aluminum had the following trend:
- 2021: $8.717 billion.
- 2022: 11,640 million dollars.
- 2023: 9,496 million dollars.
In 2023, of total Mexican imports of steel and steel products, 11% originated in China.
And in the same year, 24% of Mexico’s total aluminum imports into Mexico came from China.