Mexico hopes to avert Trump's 'pointless' 25% tariff on steel and aluminum

MEXICO CITY (CN) — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff on steel and aluminum imports “pointless” in a morning news conference Tuesday. Trump announced on Monday that the tariffs will go into effect March 12, heavily affecting Mexico, the third biggest steel exporter to the U.S.

“In the case of aluminum, the United States exports more than it imports. So there is no deficit of the United States in favor of Mexico; on the contrary, it is in favor of the United States,” said Sheinbaum on Tuesday.

Mexico’s Secretary of Economy Marcelo Ebrard called the tariffs unjust during the conference.

“He’s shooting himself in the foot,” Ebrard said of Trump. “Mexico imports more steel than it exports to the United States.”

Ebrard added that Mexico is the main destination of U.S. steel exports, representing 52% of its global exports at the end of 2024.

Ebrard said he will talk with U.S. trade representative nominee Jamieson Greer and Secretary of Commerce nominee Howard Lutnick in the coming days to make an argument against the 25% tariffs.

During his first presidential term, Trump issued 25% tariffs on steel and 10% on aluminum.

Gabriela Siller Pagaza, director of economic and financial analysis at Banco BASE and economics professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education said the talk of tariffs is tactical.

“The commercial trade should not have tariffs and we believe that this is again a strategy of Trump’s to pressure the Mexican government. Trump also wants to reduce U.S. commercial deficit but we already saw this story with aluminum tariffs that he imposed in his first term, which even saw the United States losing jobs,” she said.

Siller Pagaza said the tariffs will mostly affect Mexico’s automotive and computing industries. Mexico exports $136.6 billion in vehicles to the U.S. She predicts that the universal tariffs Trump initially planned to implement last week will continue to be postponed.

“But, at the end of the day, what Trump aims to do is isolate China. In a veiled manner, these tariffs will affect China,” she said.

Mexico is the biggest trade partner of the U.S., accounting for nearly 16% of total trade. The two countries are part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement on July 1, 2020, and is up for review next year.

Ebrard said the proposed and eventually delayed 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico were a flagrant violation of the agreement.

Last week, Trump and Sheinbaum struck a deal delaying the tariffs at least one month. The deal stipulated that Mexico send 10,000 National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and the U.S. investigate its part in trafficking guns to Mexico.

Sheinbaum confirmed that she began sending troops to the border on Feb. 5, the majority of whom will be sent to Baja California and Chihuahua.