Mexico City — Mexico's plastics industry association has thrown its weight behind the government's efforts to resist the proposed introduction of U.S. import tariffs on many Mexican goods, due to begin April 2.
Addressing President Donald Trump's threat for the first time in public, the association, Anipac, said March 11 that tariffs would "disrupt production networks" in the U.S., Canada and Mexico and lead to higher prices of raw materials and intermediate goods.
The three countries signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1992 and renegotiated it in 2018, calling it USMCA on the U.S. side while Mexico refers to it as TMEC.
"It [USMCA] is key to the competitiveness of the plastics industry in the region," Anipac added in the statement, "through the creation of jobs, the impulse and development of manufacturing and the fluid transit of inputs for the manufacturing industry between the three countries. It has led to [the creation of] a strong and consolidated production chain."
Anipac Managing Director Raul Mendoza revealed the existence of the declaration to Plastics News on the first day of the 25th edition of the four-day Plastimagen trade show at the Centro Citibanamex in Mexico City.
Asked for a comment on the tariffs issue, Mendoza pulled the statement out of a folder and proceeded to read from it. The association emailed a full copy of the text to PN the same evening.
"Mexican plastics industry exports in 2023 totaled $12.027 billion, of which 75 percent was sent to the United States," Anipac said in the statement. "A tariff of 25 percent would have an impact of $2.255 billion on plastic products, plus whatever corresponds to auto parts and textiles."
"The [plastics] industry supports the federal government, headed by President Claudia Sheinbaum, as it defends the interests of the national [manufacturing] industry and implements actions aimed at maintaining the country's competitiveness in the face of the U.S. government's decision to impose tariffs on Mexican products."
Near the end of the statement, Anipac said it was in constant contact with the U.S. plastics industry association, the Plastics Industry Association.