And they want the Biden administration to get on its case about it.
A surge in steel imports from Mexico hasn’t gone unnoticed by members of the U.S. Senate.
Fourteen of them, led by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), are urging the Biden administration to press the Mexican government to adhere to a 2019 agreement requiring it monitor its steel and aluminum exports to the U.S. to prevent surges in these metals.
This agreement was the result of negotiations that removed Mexico and Canada from the Trump administration’s Section 232 national security action that imposed tariffs of 25% on all steel imports and 10% on all aluminum imports.
But annual Mexican iron and steel imports have risen 73% above the baseline the agreement established, the senators point out in a letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. The senators argue that’s at least in part because Mexico isn’t fully implementing its side of the deal.
“We commend Ambassador Tai for securing a commitment on September 23, 2023, from Mexican Economic Minister Buenrostro to reinstate export monitoring to guarantee future compliance with the 2019 Joint Agreement,” they write. “However, we are concerned that the Mexican government is willfully delaying finalization of this agreement and negotiating in bad faith.”
If Mexico were to be found to be in violation of the 2019 deal, it allows for the Section 232 tariffs to be reimposed. The senators aren’t specifically calling for that outcome in their letter; rather, they want Mexico to live up to its end of the bargain, and they want an update on the situation from Sullivan by Dec. 31.
Brown pointed to a Mexican manufacturer’s decision to shift production at steel mills in Canton, Ohio and Lackawanna, N.Y. to facilities in Mexico as proof the Mexican government isn’t serious about adhering to the 2019 agreement.
“We’re absolutely a steel state,” Brown told WKBN-TV in Youngstown. “We know how to make steel cleaner than any other country in the world. And we’ve got to protect our steed industry and our steelworkers.”
We’ll keep an eye on this story as it develops.