WASHINGTON—The Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association, a major U.S. auto parts industry group, threw its weight behind President Trump's rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement, urging Congress to approve the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement "without delay."
MEMA, whose members employ about 871,000—the most of any U.S. manufacturing sector—previously had not endorsed the USMCA, a deal reached last year that significantly increases U.S. and North American value content for vehicles produced in the trade zone.
MEMA supports the claim that the USMCA will provide economic certainty and opportunity for manufacturing growth in the U.S. and throughout the region, calling it a "catalyst" for job growth in the U.S.
"This economic certainty is essential for U.S. suppliers to advance the safety and fuel-efficiency technologies required to be competitive in the global mobility marketplace," Bill Long, MEMA president and CEO, said in a prepared statement.
MEMA said it will continue working with the Trump administration to resolve U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico and to clarify the implementation rules governing the agreement.