MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum on Tuesday dismissed the announcement from Ecuador’s president a day earlier to apply tariffs on Mexican goods, noting that her country’s trade with Ecuador represents a tiny share of exports.
Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa announced on Monday that his government will apply a 27% tariff on all Mexican goods in an effort to promote fair treatment for his country’s companies.
Sheinbaum told reporters at her regular morning press conference that Mexican exports to the South American nation likely represent just 0.4% of Mexico’s overall shipments to foreign markets.
“Shrimp from (the Mexican state of) Sinaloa are more delicious than those from Ecuador,” she said, downplaying the impact the tariffs would have on the Mexican economy. Sinaloa state is a major producer of Mexican shrimp.
The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since Noboa ordered a raid on the Mexican embassy in Quito last year to arrest a former Ecuadorean vice president.
(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; editing by Cassandra Garrison)
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