This coincided by Máximo Vedoya, CEO of Ternium, who said that China took advantage of free trade through a centralized industrial state policy, the creation of state companies and the use of subsidies.
The businessman stressed that relations between Mexico and the United States have been fruitful, even after Trump’s first era in power. Since since the renegotiation of the T-MEC, Mexico’s exports to the United States, and vice versa, 30%have increased.
Vedoya stressed that for every dollar that Mexico exports to the United States, 30 cents represent value added precisely by US workers.
For all these reasons, for Jorge Guajardo, Trump’s tariff responses make sense, as long as they go to contain exports from China and their satellite countries, such as Vietnam or South Korea, among other Asians.
He explained that there is a real risk that China’s productive capacity ends with complete industries not only in the United States, but in Mexico. Including not only that of steel and aluminum, but also automotive and even technology intensive companies such as Amazon, Meta or Apple.
And to stop this threat, the United States needs Mexico, because “it does not have labor or energy to absorb the Mexican industry. In return, Mexico should not only limit imports from China, but avoid them at all costs.
“Today, Mexico is open to Chinese cars, which is crazy. They are now 20% of the cars sold in Mexico. They have no national content and do not favor us at all, ”he said.
Jorge Guajardo projects that the region should be directed towards a homologation of tariffs, to stay as the winning block in the world. “We are going to enter a type of customs union, where we approve our tariffs to contain Chinese exports.”
