Senators Urge Biden Administration To Address Rise In Steel Imports From Mexico

A bipartisan group of senators has sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai asking them to take action against what they call an “unsustainable surge of Mexican steel imports” and which they allege violates the United States, Mexico, Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade pact that Congress ratified in 2019.

The senators who signed the letter are: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N. Carolina), Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Sen. Ted Budd (R-N. Carolina), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio).

The senators want the Biden administration officials to immediately begin consultations with Mexico and to impose quotas on Mexican steel imports if those talks do not stem the tide of imports. The letter, available here said that since the United States lifted its 25 percent Section 232 tariffs on Mexican steel imports in May 2019:

• Mexico’s penetration of the U.S. steel conduit market has more than tripled even though demand from U.S. consumers has fallen.
• The 2019-2022 surge in product shipments from Mexico is the largest from any exporter to the United States. Specifically, the volume of annual iron and steel imports from Mexico rose approximately 73 percent over the pre-Section 232 2015-2017 baseline. Semi-finished steel and long product imports were up 120 percent during that period and steel conduit imports rose by 577 percent.
• A recent Customs and Border Protection (CBP) investigation revealed that importers misclassified Mexican steel conduit exports, concealing this extraordinary surge.

As a reminder, when it comes to Section 232 tariffs, Connecting the Dots is reporting the results of this case for members’ information only. MSCI consistently has argued that global overcapacity and other unfair trading practices, particularly by China, have harmed the U.S. steel and aluminum markets.

To address this circumvention, MSCI has advised federal officials to provide relief for producers up and down the supply chain and to consider the consequences of any new trade policy, including: the economic impact of global overcapacity on the entire domestic metals supply chain; transition times and implementation rules to any new policy; availability of domestic metals to meet U.S. national security needs, as well as general industrial and consumer demand; and trade flows under current free trade agreements, including the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA). MSCI also asked that Canada and Mexico be excluded from any trade penalties.

Click here to review all of MSCI’s advocacy on Section 232 tariffs.