MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th October, 2018) The Mexican Secretariat of Economy expressed regret over the Canadian plans to introduce duties on steel product imports and promised to take response measures in reaction to Ottawa's decision.
On Thursday, the Canadian Department of Finance said in a statement that on October 25, Ottawa will begin charging a 25 percent tariff on seven imported steel products due to an excess supply that is hurting Canadian steel producers and workers. The measures were a part of the response Canada had put together to protect its steel industry since the United States had imposed a 25 percent tariff on steel, the authorities said.
"The Mexican government will take response measures to protect Mexican exporters in the near future, and will use the available mechanisms of NAFTA [the North American Free Trade Agreement] and [the World Trade Organization] WTO in order to achieve the full removal of these measures," the Secretariat of Economy said in a statement on Thursday.
The Canadian move to introduce steel import duties would harm Mexican exports, the statement added.
Ottawa's decision might have violated its international obligations under the North American trade deal and might put regional industrial competition at risk, the statement noted.
In March, US President Donald Trump introduced 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent tariffs on aluminum imports. Mexico and Canada fell under the new duties in June. Both Mexico City and Ottawa retaliated against the US move by introducing their own duties on US goods.
Both Canada and Mexico are part of a trilateral trade agreement with the United States which was referred to as NAFTA and had recently been reworked to the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
