News/Events

The United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA), negotiated during the first Trump administration as a replacement for NAFTA, governs U.S. trade with its two largest trading partners. With the USMCA up for review by July 2026, the Brookings Institution hosted a March 5 panel, “USMCA Forward 2025 launch: Navigating North American trade amid global changes.” (Watch the entire discussion in the above video.)

The panel of thought leaders and innovators included Diana Páez, WDI’s Senior Director, Energy & Mobility. Her role involves helping energy and mobility businesses and stakeholders in low and middle-income countries tap into business opportunities and strategies to advance  the energy transition. During the panel, Páez discussed the electric vehicle transition in the context of the new administration’s approach to international trade, and prospects for updates to the agreement that can help drive EV and battery innovation across the region. She also touched on the importance of developing a shared vision about the role that North America should play in the EV transition, in particular as it relates to increased global competition. Páez noted that since the passage of USMCA and through late 2024 there has been almost 250 billion USD invested in the electric vehicle supply chain, with almost 80 percent of that invested in the United States. Panelists commented on the uncertainty that the tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration are creating for long-term investments in factories, critical minerals and microchips.,“There is a real opportunity for the EV transition,” Páez said “The question I think is what role do we want the industry in the U.S. and North America to play.”

Páez authored a chapter discussing why North America can’t afford to slow down in the EV transition in Brookings’ USMCA Forward 2025 flagship report. Read the chapter, and the full report here.

Learn more about WDI’s Energy and Mobility work.