construction supplies may get it coming and going across the mexican border

In a move being described as a retaliation, the Mexican government has announced that it is imposing new tariffs on nearly $3 billion in goods coming from the U.S., including steel.
The move comes after the Trump Administration officially announced on June 1 that it was imposing a 25 percent tariff on steel products from Mexico, Canada, and Europe, along with another 10 percent tariff on aluminum, also from those same countries.

The Secretariat of Economy in Mexico, in announcing the country’s new tariff on certain U.S. goods, said, “It is necessary and urgent to impose measures equivalent to the measures implemented” by the U.S.

The government statement added that Mexico “reiterates its position against protectionist measures that affect and distort international commerce in goods.”

The decision from Washington to raise tariffs was announced at the same time as U.S., Mexico, and Canada trade officials have been meeting in the hope of putting together a framework for the renewal of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

A lack of progress in those talks has led to speculation that the Trump administration may eventually seek a one-on-one agreement between the U.S. and Mexico regarding a wide array of products and goods.

A report just published by the Mexico City-based Institute for Industrial Development and Economic Growth called The 2018 Challenge: Rebuilding the Vision of Mexico contends that even if NAFTA is abandoned, “It would mean the beginning of the construction of another legal framework for interaction.”

But the report, criticizing President Trump’s tariff positions and his attacks on NAFTA, adds that  the Mexican government  “must not depend on the decision of a single man, or interest from another nation.”

By Garry Boulard