Mexico to Impose Import Tariffs to Bolster Industry

 The Mexican government plans to raise tariffs on imports of key goods from countries with which it doesn’t have a trade agreement as it seeks to bolster domestic industry and substitute imports from Asia.

The bill, submitted this week to Congress along with the 2026 federal budget proposal, would affect nearly 1,500 products with an impact on some $52 billion worth of imports, according to the Economy Ministry.

“These products already had a tariff…what we’re going to do is increase it to the cap that we’re permitted by the World Trade Organization,” Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Wednesday.

Goods that would be affected include vehicles and auto parts, steel, textiles, toys, home appliances and footwear.

Mexico has trade agreements with more than 50 countries, including the U.S., Canada, the European Union and Japan. China is the principal exporter to Mexico among countries that don’t have a trade agreement. Others include South Korea, India and Russia.

Mexico has become a major destination for Chinese-made cars, which accounted for around a fifth of Mexico’s new car sales.

“The Mexican auto industry is 23% of national manufacturing, so we have to protect it,” Ebrard said. “One way is to increase the tariffs paid on those light vehicles imported so cheaply, below the reference price so to speak.”

He said the tariff plan seeks to protect more than 320,000 industrial jobs at risk in major manufacturing states.

Mexican officials said the higher tariffs have as their main objective shoring up domestic industry, although Finance Minister Edgar Amador acknowledged that it’s also related to ongoing and future trade discussions with the U.S. and Canada.

The main motivation is to strengthen domestic production and consumption and reindustrialize sectors that lost competitiveness because of “not always fair competition” from other countries, Amador said. “I don’t think we’re the only ones” doing that.

Aside from illegal immigration and drug trafficking, which led the U.S. to impose tariffs on imports from Mexico not covered by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the Trump administration has been concerned about cheap Chinese imports into Mexico.

Unlike many other U.S. trade partners, Mexico refrained from threatening retaliatory measures, preferring to negotiate. Calls between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and President Trump led to numerous tariff postponements, including a 90-day reprieve on additional tariffs announced in August.