Mexico quietly hits U.S. with tariffs
MEXICO CITY — For more than two years, Donald Trump has attacked Mexico to excite his political base, threatening walls, mass deportations and an end to a nearly 25-year free trade deal between Mexico and the United States.
As frequent targets of Trump’s ire, many Mexicans have learned to take it in stride, finding that the bark is often worse than the bite.
On Thursday, however, the Trump administration clamped down on Mexico’s steel industry, along with those of Europe and Canada, imposing a 25 percent tariff on Mexican steel imports — the first real attack on the $1.5 billion in trade that crosses the border both ways every day.
Almost immediately, Mexico responded with a round of countertariffs, retaliations aimed straight at the heart of Trump’s base of political support. The reprisal had been drawn up for some time, in anticipation of the tariffs, which were first announced in March and delayed until now. Yet there was no hand-wringing by Mexico, no public uproar or Twitter storm. Just a series of countermeasures, explained in a measured release.
Mexico’s response, in some ways, is a reflection of just how accustomed the nation has grown to the actions taken by Trump. Its position regarding cooperation with the United States — on trade, migration or security — “will not vary, neither because of offensive rhetoric, nor because of unilateral and unjustified measures of this kind,” said Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray.
Mexico has adopted a poised and consistent stance in its responses — one it has refined over the course of the two years that Trump has lashed out at the country with insults and threats, first as a candidate, then as president-elect and now as president. To many analysts, Mexico has learned to soldier past the taunts.
“It is not that we don’t care, it is just that Mexicans have internalized it,” said Carlos Heredia, a professor at CIDE, a Mexico City university. “It no longer carries the element of surprise. We have been dealing with it and hearing it for two years, so it has already had its effect.”
Mexico has said repeatedly that the issue of steel tariffs will not define the negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement. And, more broadly, Mexican officials have also said they will not sign anything that is not in their country’s national interest.
That Trump imposed the tariffs on Mexico as part of a global strategy also takes much of the sting out. To many here, the steel tariffs are simply a stronger attempt — moving from words to action — to forcefully impose his worldview on the bilateral relationship. Rather than abide by current agreements, or understandings, the U.S. government has been subsumed by the compulsive, often personal agenda of the president, analysts said.
“What Trump is doing is imposing his vision of the world,” said Carlos Elizondo, a professor at the School of Government at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education. “The Mexican government is not letting this pass, but rather putting out the message that we are playing by the rules and that we are all in the same game.”
There are two potential implications for Mexico: One is electoral, the other commercial.
Mexico is gearing up for one of the most consequential presidential elections in more than a decade, with the voting set for July 1. But so far, Trump’s actions have done surprisingly little to move the needle.
The candidates all largely backed the Mexican government retaliation Thursday, and more generally they speak with the same voice when it comes to not allowing Trump to bully Mexico. It has been that way through much of the election cycle here, where domestic issues have dominated the discourse, and Trump’s potshots have long since become background noise for voters.
On the commercial side, however, the implications could be greater. While Mexico responded forcefully, and immediately, any further escalation would certainly carry a price with it — for both countries.
Along with tariffs on flat steel imports from the United States, Mexico will impose tariffs on lamps, pork legs and shoulders, sausages and prepared foods, apples, grapes, cranberries, various cheeses and other products. The products were selected to affect exporters in states that are politically important to Trump. American agricultural exporters have been particularly concerned that Mexico would retaliate against their products.