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发帖数: 562 | 1 Exclusive: Mexico studies tariffs on billions of dollars of U.S. corn, soy
David Alire Garcia, Suman Naishadham
5 Min Read
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico could strike at $4 billion in annual imports
of U.S. corn and soybeans if President Donald Trump escalates a trade spat
with new tariffs, officials told Reuters this week, and it is studying how
to reduce the pain of such a move.
An employee atop a vessel Western Tosca carrying corn imported from the
United States is pictured in the terminal port of Portimex in Tuxpan, in
Veracruz state, Mexico February 21, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo
Earlier this month, Mexico swiftly retaliated when Trump imposed metals
tariffs, hitting dozens of American imports including steel, apples and pork.
But it held back from the most lucrative class of U.S. farm products: grains
, especially feed corn and soybeans, used to fatten Mexico’s cows, hogs and
chickens.
Imposing such tariffs would be a last-ditch option hitting at U.S. corn
farmers’ top export market, and such a move would hurt Mexico’s own
industry. But it has already been increasing its imports of grains from
suppliers like Brazil and Argentina that could enable it to lessen the
impact.
“This issue is one for phase two,” said Bosco de la Vega, who heads Mexico
’s main agricultural lobby, the National Farm Council. He said tariffs on
grains were discussed at a June 4 meeting he attended at Mexico’s Economy
Ministry, which is in charge of trade. Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo
was present at the meeting, he said.
“Intentionally, it was left for a major crisis phase,” said de la Vega.
He said any move against grains would aim at the U.S. corn belt, mentioning
states such as Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska, all of which voted for
Trump in the 2016 election.
Raul Urteaga, director of international trade for Mexico’s agriculture
ministry, said Mexico “right now” was not targeting U.S. grains, but
declined to rule out such a move in the future and said Mexico was looking
for alternative suppliers.
An official with Mexico’s Economy Ministry would not say whether or not
officials were studying duties on U.S. grains, and referred back to the
retaliatory tariffs announced earlier this month.
The decision not to impose the measure during that retaliation was taken to
retain options at the negotiating table as trade talks continue and to avoid
hurting the Mexican consumer with higher prices, a trade source familiar
with the matter said.
High on Mexico’s list of worries is Trump’s decision to launch a national
security investigation into tariffs on auto imports, which could hammer
Mexico’s $67 billion auto industry.
“That’s why we’re preparing,” de la Vega said.
Urteaga, one of Mexico’s original North American Free Trade Agreement
negotiators in the early 1990s, cited two trade missions he organized along
with 17 Mexican grains buyers to Brazil and Argentina last year, aimed
squarely at developing substitute U.S. suppliers.
“I want to emphasize that both yellow corn and soybeans represent very
interesting areas of opportunity for Argentina and Brazil as alternative
suppliers for us,” he said.
“I’m emphasizing South American (imports),” he added, “simply because
that’s what’s most viable right now.”
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Over the past couple of decades, cheap U.S. grains have helped transform
Mexico’s growing beef sector, in particular, into a major global exporter.
If retaliatory Mexican tariffs were imposed on soy and corn the industry
would scramble to find enough alternative suppliers without significantly
higher costs. Some in Mexico don’t believe it can be done without
inflicting serious damage.
“There’s no real possibility of substituting these two products in the
short-term. The impact on the pork and beef industries in Mexico in terms of
costs would be brutal,” said Mariano Ruiz-Funes, a former deputy
agriculture minister.
De la Vega said the possibility of opening a broad duty-free quota to
attract imports from other suppliers and offset the higher cost of U.S.
grains was being evaluated with the Economy Ministry, which did the same
with pork last week.
The immediate beneficiaries could be Brazil and Argentina, countries from
which Mexican importers are already buying more grains both for economic
reasons and as part of a re-energized strategy to reduce dependence on the
United States since Trump began threatening to scrap NAFTA.
During the first quarter of this year, Mexico imported some 107,000 tonnes
of yellow corn from Brazil worth an estimated $17.5 million, and about 74,
000 tonnes of soybeans totaling some $31 million, according to Mexican
government data.
Both are up from zero during the same period last year.
De la Vega said he expects feed corn imports from Brazilian farmers to reach
1 million tonnes by the end of the year, plus another 500,000 tonnes from
Argentina.
Those volumes do not come close to replacing U.S shipments. Last year,
American farmers sold their southern neighbor some 14 million tonnes of corn
and almost 4 million tonnes of soy.
“Any disruption to this critical trade through tariff or non-tariff
barriers would be detrimental to U.S. farmers, Mexican livestock producers
and ultimately consumers,” said Ryan LeGrand, head of the Mexico office for
the U.S. Grains Council. | K**********r
发帖数: 235 | 2 红脖子现在成了美帝的睾丸，
美帝搞谁谁就踢红脖子一脚。 | t*******e
发帖数: 562 | 3 中国和墨西哥是美国玉米大豆的两个最主要进口国，没有之一
如果同时开打，价格会涨很多
目前，墨西哥主要是打猪肉，因为和欧洲刚签零关税，欧洲猪肉已经到了
玉米大豆就没有办法了，只能去南美 | x******g
发帖数: 33885 | | t*******e
发帖数: 562 | 5 墨西哥研究对数十亿美元美国玉米和大豆进口开征关税
墨西哥研究对数十亿美元美国玉米和大豆进口开征关税
官员们本周对路透表示，如果美国总统特朗普开征新关税造成贸易争端升级，墨西
哥可能对每年进口达40亿美元的美国玉米和大豆开铡，目前该国正在研究如何降低这类
举措的相关冲击。
本月稍早，墨西哥宣布对自美国进口的钢铁、猪肉和波本酒等商品加征关税，以报
复特朗普决定向进口钢铝加征关税的举措。
但墨西哥对最有利可图的美国农产品谷物，尤其是用来饲养墨国牛猪鸡的饲料玉米
和大豆，则并未采取行动。
对这类产品开征关税，将是打击美国玉米农户最大出口市场的最后手段，而这样的
举措也会伤及墨西哥自己的行业。但墨西哥已经一直在增加进口自巴西和阿根廷等供应
国的谷物，这可望减轻这类举措所带来的冲击。
“这个议题是第二阶段的步骤，”墨西哥全国农业联合会领袖人物Bosco de la
Vega说。该组织是墨西哥主要的农业游说团体。他表示，他6月4日参加了该国经济部的
一场会议，会中讨论了对谷物课税的议题，墨西哥经济部长瓜哈尔多（Ildefonso
Guajardo）也出席了会议。
“这项举措被刻意留待重大危机阶段时使用，”de la Vega说。
他表示任何对谷物采取的措施，将剑指美国玉米生产带，比如密苏里州、堪萨斯州
、爱荷华州和内布拉斯加州，这些州都是特朗普2016年总统选举时的票仓。
墨西哥农业部主管国际贸易的官员Raul Urteaga表示，墨西哥“现在”不会针对美
国谷物，但不排除未来有此类行动，并称墨西哥在寻找替代的供应来源。
一位经济部官员不愿表明官员们是否在研议对美国谷物课税，该官员并再次提及本
月稍早所宣布的报复性关税。
一位知情的贸易人士称，他们决定在报复期间不实施该措施，是为了在继续谈判时
保留砝码，并避免价格升高损及墨西哥消费者。
特朗普决定对汽车进口关税启动国家安全调查，是最让墨西哥担忧的事情，此举可
能令墨西哥规模达670亿美元的汽车行业受到冲击。
“这就是我们为何正在做准备，”de la Vega说。
Urteaga提到去年他与17位墨西哥谷物买家组成两个贸易代表团前往巴西和阿根廷
，目标直指发展替代美国的供应方。Urteaga是1990年代初北美自由贸易协定（NAFTA）
墨西哥方面最初的谈判代表之一。
“我在强调南美（进口），”他补充说。“只是因为这是目前最可行的。”（完）
来源于路透中文网 | c*********2
发帖数: 2752 | |
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