Mexico is elaborating the list of American products to which it will impose tariffs, which could include apples, as a trade retaliation because the United States hasn't eliminated the rules for labelling the country of origin (cool, by its acronym in English) that discriminate Mexicans and Canadians meat products.
The Ministry of economy will make a balance to determine what American industrial and agricultural products will be taxed, but said the list won't include the products that are part of the basic shopping basket nor the products that are part of strategic supplies chains that could increase the value of products, as this would increase prices for Mexican consumers.
On Thursday, the Governments of Mexico and Canada announced that they would request approval from the World Trade Organization (WTO) so they can take retaliation measures against the United States for a value of $3 billion dollars; 2.4 billion of which are from Canada (3.1 billion Canadian dollars) and $653 million dollars from Mexico.
This request was made because, after almost seven years of litigation at the WTO, the U.S. Government has not changed the law to label meat, even though there have been three rulings in favour of Mexico and Canada.
However, the spokesman for the trade representative of the United States, Andrew Bates, announced that he would challenge the amounts requested by both countries as they are substantially inflated.
That challenge will prolong the process for three or four months, said the head of the Secretariat of economy, Ildefonso Guajardo.
He also said they would search for products that were of great sensitivity among the politicians of that country, so that the members of those areas mobilized.
For example, there are apple producers in the State of Washington struggling for competition and we could include this product in the list, he said.
"What would that do? It would make the congressmen from the state of Washington advocate for the compliance of the removal of the 'cool' label. So the idea is to focus on products and states so that their congressmen actively join to eliminate the labelling," said Guajardo
