AISI: Use USMCA review to strengthen markets for American steel

The recent announcement that the United States will seek changes to the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) before agreeing to extend it should surprise no one. In fact, this is exactly what the agreement envisioned.

When USMCA replaced NAFTA, the three governments agreed that after six years they would conduct a comprehensive review of how the agreement was working and determine whether improvements were needed before extending it for 16 years. The review mechanism was deliberately built into the USMCA to allow the three governments to modernize and strengthen the agreement over time.

Over the past year, the Trump administration sought input from industry, labor, and other stakeholders on where the agreement has succeeded and where it can be strengthened. The current negotiations are the natural next step in that process and reflect recognition that the economic landscape has changed since 2020. The agreement must evolve to meet today’s challenges—particularly the global steel overcapacity crisis fueled by China and other economies.

Now, the United States, Canada, and Mexico have a tremendous opportunity to transform USMCA into something even stronger: the foundation of a true “Fortress North America” for steel and manufacturing.

The original USMCA represented a significant improvement over NAFTA. Canada and Mexico remain by far the largest export markets for American-made steel, accounting for approximately 93% of all American steel exports in 2025. A significant portion of those steel exports serves the North American auto industry, which has integrated production across all three countries. The agreement’s strengthened automotive rules of origin—requiring 75% North American content and mandating that 70% of steel purchased by automakers originate within North America—have bolstered this key market for American steel by reinforcing regional manufacturing supply chains and encouraging greater sourcing from domestic steel producers. Those achievements should not be understated.

However, the agreement is being undermined by the surge of steel imports entering Canada and Mexico from outside North America—the result of years of unfair government subsidies, state-directed investment, and market-distorting policies in numerous countries that created enormous global steel overcapacity.

While the United States has substantially reduced steel imports from outside North America through aggressive enforcement of Section 232 tariffs and antidumping and countervailing duties, imports into Canada and Mexico from countries outside the region increased. This has weakened the North American manufacturing base that USMCA was designed to strengthen.

The aforementioned Section 232 national security tariffs and other trade enforcement measures have reduced imports, increased domestic steel production, improved capacity utilization and encouraged billions of dollars in new investment across the American steel industry. Canada and Mexico have taken some positive steps of their own, but considerably more remains to be done if they are to match the US Section 232 tariffs in both size and scope, and to ensure that these tariffs are not circumvented or evaded.

Such an approach must include toughening the USMCA’s rules of origin to ensure that steel should qualify as North American only if it is actually melted and poured in North America. Stronger rules of origin should also be required for downstream manufactured goods to qualify as made in the region.

By building a genuine Fortress North America—with aligned external tariffs, stronger rules of origin and robust enforcement against circumvention and evasion—the USMCA can become the foundation for a manufacturing renaissance that benefits workers and communities across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. That is the USMCA we need, and it is within reach.

The current USMCA review is not a threat to the agreement—it is the best opportunity available today to get it right, and the United States, Canada, and Mexico should seize it to align our defenses, close the loopholes, and build a regional trade agreement strong enough to outlast the next sixteen years of global competition.