Mexican president says she will wait before responding to US metal tariffs.
"We will wait until April 2nd and, from then on, we will see if our definition of reciprocal tariffs will also be applied," said Claudia Sheinbaum.
Reuters Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that her government will not immediately retaliate against the new 25% tariffs imposed by the U.S. on all steel and aluminum imports and will instead await a possible resolution in the coming weeks.
US President Donald Trump's tariff increase on all steel and aluminum imports went into effect "without exceptions or exemptions," escalating the global trade war.
"We will wait until April 2nd and then see if our definition of reciprocal tariffs will also be applied," Sheinbaum said at his daily morning press briefing.
Trump argued that the tariffs are a necessary tool to restore the country's manufacturing capacity and create new jobs. Mexican officials said the tariffs are unjustified, pointing to data showing that the U.S. has a trade surplus in steel and aluminum with Mexico.
The tariffs threaten an already fragile Mexican economy, which is teetering on the brink of a technical recession and facing its largest budget deficit since the 1980s. While Sheinbaum has proven herself a skilled negotiator with Trump—securing a pause on other tariffs—she may struggle to achieve the same results regarding steel and aluminum.
Trump imposed a 25% tariff on steel and a 10% tariff on aluminum imports in 2018, during his first term. The tariffs helped boost US production and employment in those sectors, but the impact was hampered by negative effects on industries that depended on the metals. Trump lifted the tariffs on Mexico and Canada in mid-2019.
Mexico's Economy Minister, Marcelo Ebrard, had already criticized the tariffs as unreasonable.
"It's unfair according to President Trump's own arguments. Because we, I repeat, have more imports (of steel) than exports," Ebrard said at a press conference in February.
The Mexican steel chamber, Cancero, warned that the tariffs would affect three-quarters of Mexican steel exports, worth US$2,1 billion, and called for retaliatory tariffs on US steel.
