Mexico announced the temporary reinstatement of 15% import tariffs on some types of steel to begin in the next year, aimed at boosting the industry after a slump brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

 

The tariffs will begin in June 2022 and gradually disappear at the end of 2024, the government said in presidential decree published in the Official Gazette on Monday night. The measure applies to more than 100 steel products.

 

The local steel industry "requires a period of adjustment that allows it to resort to the necessary legal instruments against unfair trade practices," the decree said.

 

Mexico previously imposed tariffs in 2018 following former U.S. President Donald Trump's 25% "Section 232" national security tariffs on steel imports.

 

That measure, which affected both Canada and Mexico and threatened negotiations on the modernization of the North American Free Trade Agreement -- which has been revised and renamed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement -- was suspended after the United States lifted taxes on its trading partners.

 

A spokesman from Mexico's steel industry association, CANACERO, said the decree would limit unfair imports and apply only to countries without a trade agreement with Mexico.

Source: MarketScreener