Executives from U.S., Canadian, and Mexican chemical industries reaffirm support for new North American Free Trade Agreement

January 16, 2020

Leading executives representing the U.S., Canadian and Mexican chemical industries today publicly reaffirmed their support for U.S. ratification of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), also known as the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) in Canada and the Tratado entre México, Estados Unidos y Canadá (T-MEC) in Mexico.

The announcement, led by American Chemistry Council (ACC) President and CEO, Chris Jahn; Chemistry Industry Association of Canada (CIAC) President and CEO, Bob Masterson; and Asociación Nacional de la Industria Química (ANIQ) President, Miguel Benedetto Alexanderson, comes just hours before an expected U.S. Senate vote on USMCA that would bring the agreement one step closer to ratification. The announcement continues years of collaboration among the three associations on North American trade issues, including a joint March 2017 statement on industry priorities for modernizing the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

“We all win under this new agreement,” said ACC’s Jahn. “Our unanimous support for ratifying USMCA is a testimony to the collaborative, highly integrated North American chemical manufacturing sector that is uniquely positioned to continue to grow and create new jobs under the new North American trade pact. For the United States in particular, companies eyeing the U.S. shale gas revolution and chemical production boom should soon have even greater confidence to invest, knowing that they will be able to trade freely with our industry’s largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico,” Jahn added.

“We’re thrilled at the prospect of Canada’s ratification of CUSMA to further minimize barriers to North American chemicals trade,” added CIAC’s Masterson. “Eliminating tariffs and other barriers to trade has changed the conditions of doing business across borders in North America and encouraged regional investment and economic integration. Producers have become more efficient and more productive because they can benefit from vertical specialization and economies of scale. Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. goods – including chemicals, and goods that require chemicals as inputs – are competitive in the global marketplace because they are products of integrated North American supply chains,” he said.

“T-MEC strengthens NAFTA’s legacy of eliminating tariffs – removing barriers to trade, keeping North American manufacturing costs low, and boosting Mexico’s chemicals exports and creating new jobs that depend on those exports,” said ANIQ’s Benedetto. “In particular, T-MEC will enable Mexico, Canada, and the United States to evaluate where they may be able to cooperate and regulate chemicals more efficiently. We see greater regulatory cooperation as an unqualified win for companies here in Mexico and consumers throughout the region who support a risk-based approach to regulating chemicals and protecting human health and safety and the environment,” he said.

Fast Facts about the North American Chemicals Industry and Trading Relationship:

U.S. Business of Chemistry (in US dollars):

  • The U.S. business of chemistry is a US$553 billion enterprise that provides 542,000 skilled, good-paying American jobs.
  • American chemistry supports over 25 percent of U.S. GDP; provides 14 percent of the world’s chemicals; and accounts for 10 percent of all U.S. goods exports.
  • In 2018, U.S. chemical manufacturers exported $46 billion, or one-third of all U.S. chemicals exports, to Canada and Mexico. Around 44 percent of U.S. chemicals exports to Canada and Mexico are to related parties.
  • Nearly a quarter of all U.S. chemical imports are from Canada and Mexico. 64 percent of those imports are from related parties.
  • Trade with Canada and Mexico supports 46,000 U.S. chemical industry jobs.

Business of Chemistry in Canada (in Canadian dollars):

  • The Canadian chemical industry is responsible for CA$58 billion in chemical shipments.
  • Canada traded $65.1 billion in chemical products with the U.S. and Mexico in 2018.
  • The Canadian chemistry industry employs approximately 87,900 workers.

Business of Chemistry in Mexico (in US dollars):

  • Mexico’s chemical industry produced 22,675 tons of chemicals in 2018 and is responsible for $20.4 billion in chemical shipments.
  • Mexico traded $27.7 billion in chemical products with the United States and Canada in 2018. Chemicals trade between Mexico and all of its trading partners was $43.3 billion.
  • The Mexican chemical industry employs approximately 48,148 workers.