Mexico’s steel association, Canacero, applauded on Monday a series of AD duties applied by the country’s government on a number of steel products coming from China, Russia, Ukraine, India, Spain, Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
Canacero said it “recognizes” the “value” of duties applied recently, such as a $0.5630 per kilogram tariff set for both Chinese and Taiwanese coated flats imports, as well as a $0.49/kg CVD applied over the Chinese imports of wire rod.
“Unfair imports incentivized by the Chinese production’s overcapacity as well as predatory practices from other countries, have seriously distorted the global steel markets and are a threat to [Mexico’s] domestic steel industry and its value chain,” a letter from Canacero said.
The steel association added that those recently applied measures give the local steel industry “certainty” and make foreign trade “equal.”
“Mexico is highly competitive today for the installing of a capital-intensive industry, such as the steel industry, a [fact] that has been shown with the increase of investments within this segment,” Canacero argued, adding the Mexican government has “recognized” the need of using legal mechanisms to defend its domestic production and the jobs that depend from it.
Despite applauding recent moves by the country’s economy secretariat, SE, which aimed at helping the country’s steel sector, Canacero said that “there are much to be done and the [unfair trade] issue won’t be solved in the short term.”
Canacero said it will continue working in diverse additional AD processes as well as analyzing the extending of existing duties to other products with the aim of giving “congruence to the actions within the steel sector chain value.”