Mexico said it would slap a 50% tariff on Chinese car imports, acquiescing to US pressure.
Mexico is the number one export destination for Chinese autos, and the new rules will apply to a total of 1,400 product categories, not just cars. The move comes as US President Donald Trump presses Mexico to curb Chinese imports, some of which Washington argues are diverted northward.
Mexican foreign and domestic policy is increasingly geared at assuaging Trump, who has threatened tariffs if the country fails to crack down on cartels and corruption, putting Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum in a bind: “She is stuck between the rock of Trump’s pressures, and the hard place of Mexican narco-politics,” a Mexican analyst said.
