A hole that had allowed Chinese steel suppliers to avoid US tariffs since 2018 has been closed by the US by the US’s US tariffs on steel and aluminum products that come from China via Mexico.
According to the new regulations, which were announced by US President Joe Biden on Wednesday, steel materials from Mexico will be subject to a 25 % tax unless they are melted and poured in Mexico, Canada, or the US.  ,
Aluminum goods from Mexico may not have primary metal that is smelted or cast in China, Russia, Belarus or Iran, or they will experience a 10 % price.
The new regulations, according to Lael Brainard, chairman of the US’s National Economic Council, aim to close a significant flaw that the previous management did not address and that countries like China can use to prevent US tariffs by passing their goods through Mexico.
Nevertheless, Chinese state media and critics claimed that China’s metal exports will be impacted only by the new US tariffs.
The recent tariff announcements are largely symbolic because the US is not a big market place for Taiwanese steel and aluminum products, according to the Global Times, a remark from the Chinese Communist Party on Thursday.  ,  ,
According to some experts, the Biden Administration’s most recent action simply serves to further politicize trade and economic concerns.
Less than 3 % of China’s steel products were ultimately sold to Mexico, Canada, and the US, according to the experts, compared to 1 % of the country’s steel products last year.
Only 4.5 % of China’s aluminium imports got sold directly to the US in 2023, according to a review published by the Shanghai Metals Market, a market research company.  ,
China may expand its steel exports to some emerging nations, according to the report, so any new US tariffs will have only a little, short-term effect on its steel and aluminum exports.  ,
” China has no significant trade issues with developing nations. Even if there are some little problems, they can be resolved quickly”, a Zhejiang-based author using the moniker” Everyday Finance” says in an article published on Thursday. ” China and the developing world are very comparable and beneficial in many ways.”
He added that China’s needed to maintain its economic relations with the European Union, which has just imposed taxes on Chinese energy cars, is now more pressing.  ,
Others said poor private need, caused by China’s house problems, is now a more pressing concern for Chinese metal makers.  ,
Stress from US lawmakers ,
According to Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which authorizes the US commerce secretary to conduct thorough investigations to assess the effects of imports of any article on the national security of the US, the Trump administration imposed 25 % and 10 % tariffs on imports of Chinese steel and aluminum products, respectively.
In exchange for the two adjacent countries ‘ treatment of all punitive taxes they had imposed on American goods, the US announced in May 2019 that it had reached an agreement with Canada and Mexico to eliminate the Area 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum exports.  ,
Since then, several Chinese steel and aluminum manufacturers have set up products in Mexico to benefit from the US-Canada-Mexico free-trade deal.  ,  ,  ,  ,
According to the Department of Commerce, US imports of steel from Mexico were up 72 % in 2022 from the average level in 2015-2017.  ,
US Senators Tom Cotton and Sherrod Brown introduced a bipartisan bill in March of this year that called for the repeal of the 25 % tariff on Mexican steel imports.  ,
They claimed that Mexico made a promise in 2019 to increase accountability regarding exports of steel and aluminum from third countries, but the nation failed to do so.
The US announced on Wednesday that it had reached a deal with Mexico to shield its steel and aluminum industries from international tariff evasion.
According to US officials, the US would now be subject to the tax on steel imported from Mexico in 2023, or on 3.8 million lots of it, according to US authorities. According to them, 105, 000 metric tons of metal goods were imported from Mexico last year, with 6 % of those destined for smelting or casting abroad.  ,
It means that just 494, 000 tons of steel imported from Mexico, or about 1.8 % of total US material goods in 2023, are affected by the new tax deeds.  ,
In fact, the US mainly imported steel from Canada ( 6.245 million metric tons, or 24.4 % of total ), Mexico ( 3.8 million tons, 14.9 % ), Brazil ( 3.58 million tons, 14 % ), South Korea ( 2.39 million tons, 9.3 % ) and Japan ( 1.08 million tons, 4.2 % ) in 2023, according to the US Census Bureau.  ,
Last season, the best five spots of Chinese steel imports were South Korea, Vietnam, the European Union, the Philippines and Thailand, according to China Customs. China’s steel products were the 18th largest marketplace for US products.  ,
South Korea is a major importer of Chinese steel and a big supplier of US material, but its steel exports to the US follow a quota system, making it unlikely to be impacted by the US-China business conflict.
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