Mexico's economy minister Marcelo Ebrard traveled to Washington DC this week to negotiate a resolution to threatened 25pc US tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from his country.
Ebrard was joined by deputy minister of foreign trade Luis Rosendo Gutierrez "to meet with US officials and discuss steel and aluminum," the economy ministry said.
The visit comes amid uncertainty over how the tariffs will impact Mexico's auto and manufacturing sectors, given the deep integration of supply chains across North America.
The president of Mexican automaker association AMIA confirmed the group's support for Ebrard. "This is the first order of business — we are all working to ensure there are no steel tariffs on 12 March, but we'll have to see what happens."
US President Donald Trump enacted a blanket tariff of 25pc on all imported goods from Canada and Mexico on 4 March. The next day, the Trump administration announced it would exclude from the tariff all goods in compliance with the US, Mexico and Canada free trade agreement (USMCA) for a period ending 2 April.
Meanwhile, all goods not in compliance will continue to fall under the blanket 25pc tariff.
Furthermore, the Trump administration has said it will impose a global 25pc tariff on all steel and aluminum imports to the US, effective Wednesday, but market sources say there is confusion over how the global metals tariff will interact with the 4 March tariffs.
Garza highlighted concerns over how the tariffs could disrupt cross-border trade, noting that auto parts often cross the US-Mexico border multiple times before final assembly.
"We're analyzing the potential impact on auto parts that move between Mexico and the US several times, from both the steel export industry's perspective and the final manufacturing side," he said.
Ebrard is also presenting Mexico's stance on trade rules under USMCA, Garza added.
"Our interpretation is that companies in the transition-to-compliance process are within the rules," Garza said, referring to a mechanism that allows firms to gradually meet the agreement's rules of origin for duty-free trade.
Recent US International Trade Commission data shows that 8.2pc of Mexican vehicle exports and 20.4pc of Mexican auto parts exports currently do not comply with USMCA rules of origin. Mexico exported $106bn in auto parts in 2024, 87pc of which went to the US, according to auto part association INA.
Auto industry groups in Mexico are working with their US and Canadian counterparts, compiling data to support Ebrard's negotiations, including potential scenarios for the impact of tariffs on auto prices and production across the trade bloc, Garza said.
