Reuters
Mexico City, Updated At : 02:41 PM Dec 11, 2025 IST
Mexico’s Senate on Wednesday approved tariff hikes of up to 50% from 2026 on imports from China and several other Asian countries, aiming to bolster local industry despite opposition from business groups.
The measure, passed earlier by the lower house, will raise or impose new duties of up to 50% on certain goods such as autos, auto parts, textiles, clothing, plastics and steel from countries without trade deals with Mexico, including China, India, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia. The majority of products will see tariffs of up to 35%.
The Senate approved the bill with 76 votes in favour, 5 against and 35 abstentions. The enacted version is softer than an earlier proposal that stalled in the lower house; it imposes tariffs on about 1,400 product lines—mostly textiles, apparel, steel, auto parts, plastics and footwear—and reduces duties on roughly two-thirds of them compared with the original proposal.
China’s Ministry of Commerce said it would monitor Mexico’s new tariff regime and assess its impact, warning such measures would “substantially undermine” trade interests. A spokesperson for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry added that pursuing protectionism “is detrimental to others and yet does not benefit oneself”.
Analysts and the private sector say the move is partly aimed at appeasing the United States ahead of the next review of the United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement (USMCA) and is also intended to generate about $3.76 billion in additional revenue next year as Mexico seeks to reduce its fiscal deficit.
“On the one hand, it protects certain local productive sectors that are at a disadvantage with respect to Chinese products. It also protects jobs,” said Mario Vazquez, a senator for the opposition PAN party, while cautioning that tariffs act like an additional tax on consumers. Emmanuel Reyes, a senator from the ruling Morena party and chair of the Senate Economy Committee, defended the measure, saying it will boost Mexican products in global supply chains and protect jobs, and is a tool to guide economic and trade policy in the public interest.
Mexico had signalled in September it would raise tariffs on automobiles and other goods from China and other Asian countries. The United States has been urging countries in Latin America to limit economic ties with China amid strategic competition in the region.
