The United States and Mexico are negotiating a deal to reduce or eliminate President Donald Trump’s 50 per cent steel tariffs on imports up to a certain volume, industry and trade sources said on June 10.
An industry source familiar with the talks said that a likely outcome would include a quota arrangement, under which a specified volume from Mexico could enter duty free or at a reduced rate and any imports above that level would be charged the full 50 per cent tariff.
It was unclear whether the deal would eliminate tariffs altogether for in-quota steel import volumes from Mexico or reduce them to a lower level, the source said. The specific volume level of the quota also was not yet determined.
Bloomberg News first reported the negotiations over tariff reductions for Mexican steel, quoting people familiar with the matter as saying that the two sides were close to a deal.
The report said that terms of the agreement had not been finalized, but would allow US companies to import Mexican steel tariff-free as long as total shipments are kept below a level based on historical trade volumes.
A White House spokesperson declined comment, while a spokesperson for the Commerce Department, which administers Mr Trump’s “Section 232” national security tariffs on steel and aluminium did not respond to a request for comment.
Mexico was the third largest source of US steel imports in 2024 at 3.52 million net tonnes, down 16 per cent from 4.18 million in 2024, according to US Census Bureau data compiled by the American Iron and Steel Institute.
Canada was the largest foreign steel supplier at 6.56 million net tonnes in 2024, followed by Brazil at 4.5 million.
When Mr Trump first imposed 25 per cent steel tariffs in 2018, Mexico and Canada were granted exemptions with special procedures aimed at curbing any import surges beyond historical volumes. But these measures stopped short of a formal quota arrangement such as that for Brazil.
Mr Trump cancelled all steel and aluminium quotas, exemptions and exclusions in April to strengthen the metals tariffs, raising the effective rate.
A second trade source told Reuters that industry officials were pressing for a clearly de...