Mexico SE/UPCI — Sunset Review Continuation of Anti-Dumping Duty on Steel Cable from China (5-year extension to 2029)

Mechanism

This is a sunset review (examen de vigencia) final resolution under Mexico's Ley de Comercio Exterior (LCE). SE/UPCI's review covered the period 1 October 2023 to 30 September 2024 (with comparative analysis spanning October 2019–September 2024) and concluded that revoking the duty would likely lead to continued or resumed dumping and renewed injury to the domestic industry. The final resolution therefore extends the USD 2.58/kg compensatory duty on steel cable (cables de acero) from China for a further five-year term, running from 17 December 2024 through December 2029 — i.e., the clock continues from the original duty's prior term rather than restarting from the 2026 publication date.

Product scope: Steel cable / wire rope (cables de acero), classified under LIGIE tariff fractions 7312.10.01, 7312.10.05, 7312.10.07 and 7312.10.99. The duty applies regardless of country of consignment (i.e., transshipment through third countries does not avoid it), but importers who can prove non-Chinese manufacturing origin under Mexico's non-preferential rules of origin are exempt.

Collection: SHCP/SAT collects the compensatory duty at the border alongside ordinary customs duties.

Downstream implications

• Extends Mexico's steel trade-remedy lane, which was previously represented only by the

1993 LCE foundational law, the 2023 coated-flat-steel sunset (2023-09-13-mexico-se-coated-flat-steel-china-taiwan-antidumping-sunset), and two 2026-05-21 investigation initiations on adhesive plastic tape and mirror glass — none of which cover steel cable / wire rope.

• Steel cable/wire rope is a widely used industrial input (construction hoisting,

elevators, mining, ports, agriculture, automotive towing) — a specific-rate duty (USD/kg rather than ad valorem) means the effective ad-valorem burden rises as international steel prices fall, making it a persistently binding constraint on low-value Chinese product regardless of price competition.

• Mexico's 29 December 2025 LIGIE tariff decree

(2025-12-29-mexico-decreto-ligie-1463-tariff-lines) separately raised the MFN duty on the same HS chapter 73 fractions to 35% effective 1 January 2026 for non-FTA-partner countries, including China — meaning Chinese steel cable importers who cannot prove non-Chinese origin now face both the specific USD 2.58/kg AD duty and the 35% ad valorem MFN layer stacked on the same import.

• Fits the broader active global steel trade-remedy wave (overcapacity-driven AD/CVD

actions against Chinese steel across LatAm, the EU, and Southeast Asia) while sitting outside the already well-covered US/EU/BR trade-remedy zone.

Open questions

• Whether the five-year term is calculated as running through 16 December 2029 exactly, or

whether a new sunset review must be initiated in late 2028/2029 — monitor DOF for the next examen de vigencia initiation notice.

• Combined effective burden (specific duty + 35% MFN layer) on landed cost for importers

unable to prove non-Chinese origin — not quantified in either source reviewed.