Regional Strength in a Fragmented World

In moments of geopolitical recalibration, economic architecture becomes national strategy. That was the premise behind INDEX’s recent working delegation to Washington, D.C., organized by INDEX — Mexico’s Manufacturing and Export Industry Association (Asociación de Manufactura y Exportación de México) — to engage US policymakers, industry leaders and institutional stakeholders in defense of what is ultimately at stake: the integrity of the North American production platform.

At the center of these discussions was IMMEX (Manufacturing, Maquiladora and Export Services Industry Program), Mexico’s cornerstone export manufacturing framework and one of the most consequential instruments enabling regional industrial integration under the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA).

North America does not compete internally, it competes globally. Weakening IMMEX would not strengthen the United States; it would weaken the North American production platform.

The upcoming USMCA review arrives at a decisive moment. Certain industry groups have portrayed IMMEX as a mechanism that enables tariff circumvention or unfair competitive advantages. Such interpretations overlook both the legal structure and economic function of the program.

IMMEX traces its origins to Mexico’s maquiladora strategy launched in the late 1960s, designed to facilitate cross-border industrial cooperation at a time when globalized manufacturing was still emerging. Over decades, the program evolved into a sophisticated export platform aligned with NAFTA and later modernized under USMCA rules. Today, IMMEX represents one of the most successful examples worldwide of production integration between neighboring economies.

Functionally, IMMEX operates as a tariff-deferral regime comparable in structure and intent to US Foreign-Trade Zones (FTZs). Both systems allow companies to temporarily import inputs without immediate duty payment, provided those materials are transformed and subsequently exported. Duties are deferred — not eliminated — and compliance with rules of origin remains mandatory.

This alignment is critical. IMMEX does not alter origin status, permit transshipment, or bypass trade remedies. Instead, it eliminates duplicative fiscal and regulatory burdens that would otherwise reduce efficiency within integrated supply chains spanning North America.

More importantly, IMMEX sustains deeply interconnected value chains that directly reinforce US competitiveness. Nearly $280 billion in US goods were imported by IMMEX companies in 2025, while approximately 59% of Mexican exports to the United States consist of intermediate goods embedded within American manufacturing processes. These flows sustain production ecosystems — not unilateral advantages — enabling companies across both countries to remain globally competitive.

During our Washington mission, INDEX leadership engaged with US Customs and Border Protection, the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Departments of Commerce, Labor and State, congressional representatives, and leading business organizations including the National Association of Manufacturers, Business Roundtable and the US Chamber of Commerce. Meetings also included dialogue with major multinational manufacturers whose North American operations depend on seamless cross-border production.

Across institutions, one conclusion consistently emerged: Dismantling IMMEX would not repatriate production to the United States. Instead, it would introduce uncertainty into highly synchronized industrial ecosystems, weaken supply chain resilience, and unintentionally shift investment toward regions outside North America.

Section 232 tariffs on steel and aluminum were also central to the dialogue. While conceived under national security considerations, these measures intersect with supply chains that increasingly function as a single continental manufacturing system. Mexican exports contain more US value-added content than those of any other trading partner, reinforcing employment, innovation and industrial output across American states closely linked to cross-border manufacturing.

If reducing dependency on Asia is the shared strategic objective, the path forward lies not in fragmentation but in coordinated regional substitution. North America retains the industrial scale, talent base, and logistical proximity required to compete globally, provided integration continues to deepen.

Mexico’s advanced manufacturing platform offers complementary capabilities that strengthen continental resilience. In semiconductors, for example, while the United States leads capital-intensive wafer fabrication investments, assembly, testing and packaging capacity remains heavily concentrated in Asia. Mexico’s growing electronics ecosystem provides a natural location for these labor-intensive stages, allowing North America to expand technological sovereignty without duplicating investment structures.

This Washington initiative took place within a broader national framework aimed at increasing regional content across the USMCA zone. Earlier this year, I was invited to participate in the Federal Investment Promotion Committee representing the state of Nuevo Leon, whose national launch took place at the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City under the leadership of Mexico’s Minister of Economy Marcelo Ebrard and the President of Mexico Claudia Sheinbaum, signaling a coordinated federal commitment to productivity, investment attraction, and supply-chain regionalization.

For Nuevo Leon — one of North America’s most dynamic industrial hubs — integration is not an aspiration; it is daily operational reality. The conversations held in Washington confirmed something increasingly evident across governments and industry alike: effective regional advocacy now requires leadership capable of translating industrial execution into strategic policy dialogue.

The forthcoming USMCA review should remain grounded in data, legal certainty and long-term competitiveness. IMMEX is not an exception to trade rules; it operates precisely within them. Like US Foreign-Trade Zones, it exists to eliminate inefficiencies while strengthening shared production capacity.

The global competitive arena is unforgiving. Asia coordinates industrial strategy at scale. Europe advances through regulatory alignment. North America’s advantage lies in integration — geographic, economic and institutional.

At this defining juncture, North America will not advance by accident. It will advance through deliberate, coordinated leadership.