Ebrard speeds up the pace with Washington just days before Trump's tariff deadline expires

With Donald Trump's deadline to impose a 25% tariff on all Mexican imports just days away, Economy Secretary Marcelo Ebrard has stepped up the pace with his counterparts in Washington to try to stop the US "tariff wall." The first contact took place on Thursday of last week, with Ebrard's meeting with US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, and both work teams will continue to communicate until March 4, the date on which, in principle, the suspension of the threat ends. Ebrard reported that the meeting took place hours after Lutnick was confirmed in his position, a sign of the priority that the issue represents for the White House. "The meeting was cordial, it was a first meeting where we established general ideas about the importance of trade with Mexico," Ebrard said on Tuesday, after the inauguration of the Codex Committee on fruits and vegetables.

Asked about whether it is possible that the application of tariffs will be carried out on March 4, as the Republican declared on Monday, the Secretary of Economy insisted that “it is too early to draw conclusions” and assured that as soon as progress is made he will speak out on the matter, however, he said he is optimistic. “Mexico listened to the priorities and concerns of the United States and with that we began to work. We are convinced that Mexico and the United States have to reach understandings , because they are the two most integrated economies in the world,” added the federal official.

Although Ebrard is in Mexico City and did not indicate whether he will fly to Washington in the next few days, the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, Luis Rosendo Gutiérrez, remains in the U.S. capital, leading the negotiations and managing the databases that are being exchanged with the United States. “This will continue throughout the week and, at some point, we will have another meeting and there will be a lot of communication with them throughout the week,” Ebrard said.

In addition to the threat of a generalized 25% tariff on all Mexican imports if the Mexican government does not control drug trafficking and illegal migration, President Trump has threatened to impose a 25% tariff on steel and aluminum starting next March. The economic impact of these two measures is still officially unknown. The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO) indicated that the implementation of this measure would mean a blow of more than 29 billion dollars to the Mexican economy, while agencies such as Moody's have warned that if the tariffs were to be implemented, they would put the economy on the ropes, on the brink of a recession.

Mexico is considering a series of proposals to defuse the tariff bomb. According to business sources, these include increased surveillance at customs; phytosanitary measures on pork exports to the US; changes to the rules of origin of the USMCA to curb the import of Chinese cars into Mexican territory; and more barriers to Asian imports, specifically from China, Vietnam and Thailand, as well as increased surveillance of technological imports from Russia. Putting a stop to the Chinese presence in Mexico is, in terms of trade, Washington's obsession.