Mexico Says Steel Import Crackdown Cut Vietnam Shipments 80% as US Talks Advance

Mexico's deputy economy minister for foreign trade, Luis Rosendo Gutierrez, told reporters on Wednesday, November 11, 2026, that his government has tightened controls on steel traceability. He said officials are making sure that metal from China and other economies does not move through Mexico into the United States under the North American trade agreement. The remarks came as Mexico presses Washington for relief from tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.

Registry cleanup and import declines

Gutierrez said authorities canceled roughly 1,100 registrations of steel producers, many based in Asia, after finding that those companies did not actually exist. He linked that step to an 80 percent fall in steel imports from Vietnam during some months, a drop he described as building up over the past several months. The government has treated the registry review as a central part of its enforcement效果 approach.

He also said steel and aluminum imports from other third countries, including China, South Korea and India, fell by about 30 percent. Mexican officials put the value of the reduced imports at about 13 billion pesos, equivalent to roughly $698.54 million.

Tariff relief remains the priority

Mexico's stated priority is to reduce the effect of United States Section 232 tariffs on autos, steel and aluminum, rather than open a broader review of the trade pact linking Mexico, the United States and Canada. Gutierrez said American officials had been receptive to proposals put forward by Economy Minister Marcelo Ebrard. He added that Mexico hopes to hear positive news within weeks, before the end of the year.

Earlier, Ebrard told a steel industry assembly that Mexican mills were running at about 55 percent of capacity and that exports to the United States had dropped 55 percent over six months. The government has also made tariffs of 10 to 35 percent on steel imports from countries without a free trade agreement with Mexico permanent, covering 220 steel products, including goods from China, Vietnam and South Korea.

What the changes mean for workers

For people working in steel production, logistics and trade compliance, the policy shift points to closer attention to paperwork, origin checks and supplier records. Companies that import metal inputs may face more documentation reviews, which can increase demand for staff who can trace materials from the supplier to the finished shipment. Because Mexican mills were already operating well below full capacity, hiring plans in the sector remain closely tied to trade outcomes.

Gutierrez said about 80 percent of Mexican exports to the United States already enter tariff-free, a point Mexico is likely to stress in its talks. Some analysts argue that Mexico is not a major hub for steel transshipment, so the scale of the rerouting problem remains open to debate.

The next signals to watch are whether Washington grants tariff relief on autos, steel and aluminum before year-end, whether Mexico extends its traceability checks to other products, and how steel trade flows from Vietnam, China and India change in official customs data. Separately, a US framework for metals tariffs sets a flat rate on articles made almost entirely of aluminum, steel or copper, and any change to that rule would shape decisions by Mexican exporters.