MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday (Dec 10) authorized tariff hikes of as much as 50 per cent subsequent 12 months on imports from China and a number of other different Asian international locations, aiming to bolster native trade regardless of opposition from enterprise teams.
The proposal, handed earlier by the decrease home, will elevate or impose new duties of as much as 50 per cent from 2026 on sure items corresponding to autos, auto components, textiles, clothes, plastics and metal from international locations with out commerce offers with Mexico, together with China, India, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia.
Nearly all of merchandise will see tariffs of as much as 35 per cent.
The Senate handed the Invoice with 76 votes in favour, 5 in opposition to and 35 abstentions.
The authorized Invoice is softer than one which stalled within the decrease home this autumn, with tariffs on about 1,400 completely different product strains – principally textiles, attire, metal, auto components, plastics and footwear – and decreased duties on roughly two-thirds of them in contrast with the unique proposal.
CHINA CRITICISES MOVE
China’s Ministry of Commerce responded on Thursday, saying it could observe Mexico’s new tariff regime and weigh its influence, however warned that such measures would “considerably undermine” the pursuits of commerce.
“China has at all times opposed all types of unilateral tariff will increase and hopes Mexico will appropriate such unilateralist and protectionist practices as quickly as attainable,” the commerce ministry stated.
When requested at an everyday press briefing, a spokesperson for China’s International Affairs Ministry stated that “going in opposition to the tide of financial globalisation by pursuing protectionism is detrimental to others and but doesn’t profit oneself”.
