Business & Economics
Mexico Approves Up-to-50% Tariffs on Non-FTA Asian Imports; China Protests
Within a day of Mexico’s Senate green-lighting steep new duties on 1,400+ goods from countries without trade pacts, Beijing publicly warned the move was protectionist and demanded a rollback.
Focusing Facts
- 10 Dec 2025: Mexican Senate passed a decree imposing tariffs as high as 50 % on more than 1,400 import lines from non-FTA nations, effective 1 Jan 2026.
- 11 Dec 2025: China’s Commerce Ministry issued an official statement condemning the hikes as “unilateral and protectionist” and said it would monitor the impact.
- 12 Dec 2025: South Korea negotiated carve-outs—38 auto-part items were dropped and several rates trimmed to 25 %—after minister-level talks with Mexico.
Context
Tariff walls are nothing new: the 1930 U.S. Smoot-Hawley Act raised duties on 20,000 items and helped fracture global trade; a century later, the 2018–20 U.S.–China tariff war showed how quickly great-power frictions can spill into supply chains. Mexico’s step fits a longer arc toward regionalised blocs—NAFTA in 1994, USMCA in 2020, and now selective barriers against nations outside those frameworks. By taxing Asian inputs while preserving programs like PROSEC/IMMEX for re-exports, Mexico is signalling it wants near-shored production tied to North America, not East Asia. Whether China retaliates or shrugs off the hit matters less than the structural trend: world commerce is drifting from multilateral rules toward FTA-centric spheres. On a 100-year horizon, this episode may be a footnote, but it is another brick in a wall of slow de-globalisation that, like inter-war tariffs, could cumulatively redraw the map of manufacturing and power.
Perspectives
Chinese government perspective
Chinese government perspective — Mexico’s tariff hikes are unilateral, protectionist moves that will substantially damage trade interests and should be reversed quickly. By focusing almost exclusively on China’s objections and omitting Mexico’s policy rationale, these pieces cast Beijing as a principled defender of free trade while sidestepping China’s own history of using tariffs and trade barriers.
Indian business media
Indian business media — The new Mexican tariffs pose an immediate threat to Indian and other Asian exporters, potentially raising costs for sectors from machinery to pharmaceuticals. Coverage stresses the risk to India’s export earnings and supply chains, amplifying worst-case scenarios while offering little detail on Mexico’s domestic economic motives or on possible mitigation measures.
South Korean domestic media
South Korean domestic media — Thanks to negotiated exemptions and existing import-relief programs, the impact of Mexico’s tariff increases on Korean exports will be limited. By highlighting Seoul’s diplomatic ‘wins’ and downplaying lingering uncertainties, the reporting reassures domestic industries and may understate longer-term competitive pressures in Mexico.