US Aluminum Lobby Asks Washington to Keep Tariffs Out of USMCA

The Coalition for a Prosperous America has urged the US Treasury and USTR to reject downstream aluminum exemptions for Mexico and Canada in the USMCA review and to raise tariffs on fabricated products, arguing origin rules cannot replace Section 232 protection. The group calculates that exempting Mexican extrusions would cut their landed cost to roughly US$2.39/lb against US$3.88/lb for US producers, a 38% gap. Mexico is pursuing the opposite outcome, seeking removal of 50% metals duties after paying close to US$23 billion in US tariffs in the year through April 2026.

The Coalition for a Prosperous America (CPA) has asked the US Treasury and the Office of the US Trade Representative to preserve Section 232 aluminum tariffs on Mexico and Canada through the USMCA review and to raise duties on downstream products, arguing that origin rules cannot substitute for tariff protection.

The request, set out in a report released this month, targets the concession most plausibly on the table when negotiators reconvene in Washington in September: relief for fabricated aluminum goods that qualify under North American origin rules. CPA wants extrusions, tubing, structures, components and other fabricated products excluded from any carveout, and it wants the applicable rates raised to offset what US fabricators pay for their own metal.

"This is a strategically essential industry that the United States must protect," said Jon Toomey, President of CPA, announcing the report. The organization's core argument is that a downstream exemption would let third-country metal enter Mexico or Canada, undergo limited processing and re-enter the United States with a tariff advantage, while US extruders continue buying inputs at tariff-inflated domestic prices.

The group anchors its case in employment distribution. Downstream extruders and fabricators represent roughly 78% of jobs across the four core aluminum manufacturing categories, against 22% for primary and secondary smelting, and as much as 97% once broader fabrication is counted. They also generate more than three-quarters of the industry's US$41.3 billion in 2021 earnings. CPA counts 125,675 downstream jobs, including 65,662 in sheet, plate and extrusion.

Its cost comparison is more pointed. Using May 2026 LME and Midwest Premium values, CPA calculates a US extruder's landed cost at about US$3.88/lb against roughly US$3.58/lb for a Mexican extruder even with the full 50% duty applied. Remove the tariff and the Mexican figure drops to around US$2.39/lb, which the group frames as a US$1.49/lb or 38% disadvantage for US producers. The same report notes that the US country premium rose 77% in the seven weeks after the aluminum tariff doubled to 50%, set a record of 88.10¢/lb in November 2025, passed US$1.00/lb in January 2026 and approached 119¢/lb in May.

Where origin rules survive, CPA wants them treated strictly as enforcement. Its recommendation is real-time verification of smelt, cast, alloy, lot and chain of custody rather than documentary certification.

Mexico Is Arguing the Opposite Case

Mexico entered the review seeking removal of Section 232 duties on steel, aluminum and autos. Minister of Economy Marcelo Ebrard called the 50% rate unsustainable at the first formal negotiating round in May, and has since pressed for parity with the United Kingdom's preferential treatment. The Ministry of Economy reports that US demands fell from 54 to 14 between review cycles while Mexico tabled 13 concerns of its own, centered on metals tariffs, automotive terms and the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism.

The measurable cost supports that push. Section 232 duties helped drive Mexican steel exports to the United States down 36.6% in 2025 and pushed domestic capacity utilization to 55%, while automotive shipments fell 5.1% year over year in the first four months of 2026 to US$48.638 billion. Mexican goods generated close to US$23 billion in US duties over the twelve months through April. Ebrard has tied continued duties to as many as 350,000 manufacturing jobs across the automotive supply chain.

Two Tracks Already Running

Washington's tariff architecture has moved in both directions this year. A June proclamation restructured Section 232 into tiers through 2027, holding 50% on aluminum, steel and copper articles, setting 25% on derivatives, 15% on certain industrial and electrical grid equipment and 10% on goods manufactured abroad from US metal, with products containing 15% or less of these metals falling outside the regime. An earlier April change shifted assessment to the full customs value of covered goods rather than metal content alone.

At the same time, the Department of Commerce opened a path to reduce duties for eligible Mexican and Canadian producers that supply US automotive or heavy-vehicle manufacturers and commit to new US capacity, with reductions of up to half the otherwise applicable rate. That mechanism conditions relief on investment inside the United States, a structure closer to CPA's logic than to Mexico's request for treaty-based exemption.

September's round will test which reading prevails. Because the United States declined to confirm a 16-year extension on July 1, the agreement now faces annual reviews rather than a single renegotiation, and roughly 85% of Mexican exports still cross duty-free under existing origin rules. Whether fabricated aluminum keeps that status is the question CPA is trying to close off in advance.