Mexican government decided to lower import duties
According to a recent announcement in the Mexican offical gazette, the government this week has decied to lower the import duties applied on 40 items. The existing import duties implemented in April 2002, excluding the
trading partners of the country are reduced from 35 percent down to 25 pecent according to the new decree.
Mexico is a
trading partner of the US, together with
Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and therefore is excluded from the safeguard measures of the Bush administraton that came into effect as of March 2002.
Within the framework of the scheduled plan, the revised duties will remain valid for one year and keep decreasing gradually until 2004, as long as continuation of the recovery in the industry is observed.
On the other hand this situation led to a rise in the concern of a boost of imports of foreign products in the local industry.
The Mexican steel authorities might ask for the decision to be withdrawn in case of a remarkable increase of the imports into the country.