North American Electrical Industries Urge USMCA Negotiators To Renew and Strengthen Continental Trade Framework

NEMA, CANAME, and EFC support a trilateral agreement to continue to grow North American energy security, grid reliability, and AI leadership

ARLINGTON, Va. - The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), La Cámara Nacional de Manufacturas Eléctricas (CANAME), and Electro-Federation Canada (EFC) - the trade associations representing North America's electrical manufacturers in the U.S., Mexico and Canada respectively - today came together to call upon United States Trade Representative (USTR) Ambassador Jamieson Greer, Mexico Secretary of the Economy Marcelo Ebrard, and Canada Minister Responsible for Canada-U.S. Trade Dominic LeBlanc to leverage opportunities to improve and strengthen the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) during its July 2026 review period - and unlock the trilateral pact's potential.

In their joint letter, NEMA President and CEO Debra Phillips, CANAME President Aquiles Manuel López, and EFC President and CEO Carol McGlogan - whose industries represent the backbones of the U.S., Mexican, and Canadian electric power systems - confirm that the USMCA "has strengthened regional supply chains" and created good-paying jobs in the U.S. and across the continent through a modern trade framework.

Electrical equipment is essential to each new manufacturing facility, every megawatt of added grid capacity, and every data center. In fact, according to NEMA data, electrical components comprise approximately one-third of the total spend to build a typical AI data center, and 10 percent of the total spend to build a new U.S. manufacturing facility.

Further, the letter's authors credit the trilateral pact - in effect since July 2020 - with helping the continent's electrical manufacturing industries "significantly reduce reliance on imports of electrical products from outside of North America." By one measure, U.S. electrical manufacturers have reduced their collective dependence on materials from China by more than 49% since 2018, while investing more than $185 billion in domestic production capacity over the same period.

The USMCA is one of the world's most significant trade agreements, covering nearly $2 trillion of trade in goods and services between countries representing roughly 30 percent of the global economy.

In their joint letter, NEMA, CANAME, and EFC - whose industries collectively employ more than 890,000 workers - acknowledge the successes of the USMCA and articulate some areas where the agreement can be strengthened. To deliver on the full promise of the next iteration of USMCA, NEMA, CANAME, and EFC urge negotiators to advance three key priorities during the upcoming review period:

• Strengthen technical standards harmonization by reinforcing the work of the Council for Harmonization of Electrotechnical Standardization of the Nations of the Americas (CANENA) and North American Standards Developing Organizations

• Improve Rules-of-Origin, consulting with industry on any changes to Rules-of-Origin

• Eliminate policy uncertainty and potential market fragmentation by preserving the trilateral structure of the USMCA

The full, joint letter is available here.

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About NEMA

The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) represents over 300 electrical equipment manufacturers that make safe, reliable, and efficient products and technologies that power, connect, and light our world. Together, our members contribute a full 1% of U.S. GDP and directly provide over 580,000 American jobs, adding more than $330 billion to the U.S. economy. Learn more at makeitelectric.org

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