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Mexico hit back fast on U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum on Thursday , targeting products from congressional districts that President Donald Trump’s Republican party is fighting to retain in November elections.
Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo
said the tit-for-tat measures would complicate talks between the United States, Canada, and Mexico to revamp the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) that underpins trade between the neighbors.
The spat meant it would be “very difficult” to reach a deal to revamp NAFTA before Mexico’s July 1 presidential election , though he underlined the continent had not entered a trade war.
“A trade war is when there is an escalation of conflict. In this case, it is simply a response to a first action,” Guajardo told Mexican radio.
“We should stick to the clearly defined battlefield, where the response is appropriate and proportional.”
Mexico’s retaliatory tariffs target pork legs, apples, grapes, and cheeses as well as steel - products from U.S. heartland states that supported Trump in the 2016 election.
The country reacted right after Washington said in the morning it was moving ahead with tariffs on aluminum and steel imports from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.
“It sends a clear message that this kind of thing does not benefit anybody ,” Guajardo said of the Mexican retaliation.
“Because, in the end, the effect will fall on voters and citizens that live in districts where the people have a voice and vote in the (U.S.) Congress.”
Mexico said it was imposing “equivalent” tariffs , ratcheting up tensions during talks to renegotiate NAFTA ahead of the U.S. mid-term elections in November. The measures will be in place until the U.S. government drops its tariffs, Mexico’s government said.
At an interview with EL UNIVERSAL , former assistant secretaries of foreign trade and investments for the Mexican government Beatriz Leycegui Gardoqui, Francisco de Rosenzweig, Luis de la Calle Pardo, and Alejandro Gómez Strozzi claimed that the United States’ tariff imposition to steel and aluminum exports from Mexico, Canada, and the European Union are only further complicating the process of the NAFTA renegotiation.
“In the short term, it should be our priority to solve this tariff war with our different trade partners while we find favorable conditions to move on with the NAFTA renegotiation on the middle term,” Rosenzweig commented.
De la Calle believes that the possibility of reaching an agreement before the upcoming presidential election of Mexico on July 1 is minimal, which means that it will be up to the country’s incoming administration to conclude the renegotiation.
Just yesterday, the U.S. President, Donald Trump , threatened to break the trilateral focus on the NAFTA renegotiation to seek different pacts with Mexico and Canada.
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