Input Stories

Today is the second anniversary of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement. The NAM joined with its partners the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters and the Confederation of Industrial Chambers of Mexico to mark the occasion, saying:

• “Manufacturers across North America continue to strongly and respectfully urge political leaders to work together to live up to the commitments of the agreement, which garnered broad support in all three countries. Full compliance with the agreement will provide certainty for the more than 23 million manufacturing workers in the United States, Mexico and Canada and boost our region’s ability to compete with the rest of the world.”

Joint commitment: The three organizations also “reiterate our longstanding commitment to engage with the Canadian, Mexican and U.S. governments to ensure that the USMCA/T-MEC/CUSMA is fully implemented and that it supports our industry’s competitiveness and our workers at this critical time for our economies.”

Timmons to Biden: Separately, NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons wrote to President Biden about certain challenges in U.S.–Mexico trade relations ahead of President Biden’s bilateral meeting with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador next month. These challenges for manufacturers include:

• “Energy and electric power generation measures that have favored dramatically the interests of Mexican state-owned entities over U.S. companies, adding costs for manufacturers that rely on existing contracts with energy suppliers and making it harder for them to meet long-term sustainability goals in Mexico, while also slowing the deployment of renewable energy in Mexico”;
• “Expanded food labelling requirements in Mexico that restrict U.S. exports, increase legal uncertainty and curtail U.S. intellectual property and advertising, as well as bans on sales of U.S. packaged goods to minors in key Mexican states.”

And quite a few more. You can read the whole list here.

NAM in the news: POLITICO’s Morning Trade newsletter this morning covered Timmons’ message to President Biden.