End of Mexican Countermeasures Against US Products

(Download the PDF version: Trade Alert – 20052019)

Last Friday a joint statement by the US and Mexico was issued regarding the elimination of the so-called Section 232 tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum. On Sunday 19^th, the US President issued a Proclamation that eliminated the 232 measures applicable to said Mexican imports.

Today, 20^th of May, the President of Mexico issued the following Decree:

DECREE that modifies the former Decree by which it modifies the Tariff of the Law of the Import and Export Tariffs, the Decree that establishes the Applicable Rate for 2003 of the Import Tariff for the goods originating in America of the North, and the Decree establishing various Sectoral Promotion Programs, published on June 5, 2018.

[…]

Sole  Article.-  Articles 1, 2 and 9 are repealed of the Decree[….] published on June 5^th, 2018, in the Official Gazette.

I.    US Goods

In today’s Decree, the Mexican President eliminates the countermeasures that were taken against goods originating from the US (Decree of June 5^th, 2018), such as steel and aluminum products, pork meat, cheese, agricultural products, motor boats, fans, “bourbon whiskey”, lamps and metal furniture, among others. The Decree enters into force today, so said US products can again benefit from the preferential tariffs that were established in NAFTA.

II.  Mexico-US Agreement

As mentioned in the joint statement and the Proclamation, we note that the elimination of the 232 tariffs is accompanied by a series of measures that will aim “to prevent the importation of steel articles that are unfairly subsidized or sold at dumped prices, to prevent the transshipment of steel articles, and to monitor for and avoid import surges.” According to the joint statement, the US and Mexico “agreed” that tariffs may be imposed to an individual steel or aluminum product in the event that imports surge, and that the “exporting” country can only retaliate in the affected sector; this clearly limits Mexico’s possible retaliatory measures which proved to be effective. Finally, Mexico and the US agreed to terminate all WTO litigation regarding this matter.

III.Steel Products from Third Countries without an FTA

VTZ notes that in the Presidential Decree of June 5^th, 2018, Mexico temporally raised tariffs against steel products from third countries with which it does not have a Free Trade Agreement. Such tariffs expired on January 31^st, 2019. Mexico adopted said measure because it considered that it was likely a substantial increase in exports to Mexico, in part, because of the unilateral measures adopted by the US.

Notwithstanding that the aforementioned measures expired, again Mexico temporally raised tariffs on steel products from third countries on March 25^th, 2019, claiming that there is an oversupply of steel. These “temporal” tariffs will be in force for 180 days, i.e. September 22, 2019.

IV.               USMCA

Finally, VTZ highlights and considers that these events constitute a significant step towards the ratification process of USMCA in Mexico and the USA (as well as Canada). In this sense, companies established in the region shall start to prepare for its entry into force possibly in 2020.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact Adrian B. Vázquez (adrian[@]vtz.mx),   Eduardo Zepeda (eduardo[@]vtz.mx), Emilio Arteaga (emilio[@]vtz.mx).