The head of the Office of the Trade Representative of that country (USTR), Katherine Tai, met virtually this Friday with the Secretary of Economy (SE), Raquel Buenrostro, to talk about the issue of Mexican exports of steel and aluminum to the US market.
In a statement issued by the USTR, the US representative considered that “there is a lack of transparency regarding the steel and aluminum that Mexico imports from third countries.”
He recalled that since 2019 an agreement was signed under section 232 on various obligations that Mexico committed to monitor the steel and aluminum exported to the US, in exchange for the US government not reimposing tariffs.
The USTR reported that both countries will continue the talks and recalled that this matter has been ongoing for more than a year.
For its part, the Ministry of Economy rejected that there is a lack of transparency and reiterated Mexico’s willingness to share the information required to identify the traceability of these products.
“A cooperation agenda was proposed that includes consolidating tariff homologation, cooperation between antidumping agencies to make their investigations and resolutions more efficient, among other actions,” the secretariat said in a statement.
This is not the first time that the United States, Mexico’s main trading partner, has referred to the issue. In September, Katherine Tai had already held a meeting with Buenrostro where she expressed concern about the increase in steel and aluminum exports.
In December, 14 U.S. senators sent a letter of protest to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
In the letter they noted that increased imports of steel and aluminum “threaten our manufacturing base and American national security,” and called for “immediate action to safeguard American jobs.”
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According to the letter, the import of Mexican steel and aluminum in the period from 2019 to 2022 increased around 73 percent compared to the period from 2015 to 2017.
2024-02-17 03:33:27
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