[CTC] Official: Mexico Won't Make Labor Reforms for TPP

[Arthur Stamoulis]

IUST
Daily News
Mexican Official Says Possible Labor Reforms Not Tied To TPP Conclusion
Posted: August 25, 2015

A senior Mexican official has rejected the notion that there is any link between reforms Mexico may make to its labor regime and the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), saying the government of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto will pursue any labor reforms it sees fit on the timeline that it chooses.

Jose Luis Stein, who heads the international affairs department of Mexico's Labor Secretariat, drove home that point in an unsolicited Aug. 20 letter <http://insidetrade.com/node/149468> to this publication. He sent the letter in order to respond to comments by a labor source in an Aug. 13 article <http://insidetrade.com/node/149351> in Inside U.S. Trade suggesting that Mexico is willing to make changes to its labor law in the context of a TPP deal.

“In every single meeting where TPP has come up, it was made very clear [to the U.S.] that the discussion of labor issues within the bilateral agenda … was under no circumstances subject to the signing of the TPP, and that the completion of TPP was not subject to or conditioned upon any of the issues of our bilateral agenda,” Stein wrote, according to an informal translation of his letter.

Despite his position, U.S. trade officials have indicated to congressional staff that Mexico is one of four TPP countries with which the U.S. is negotiating a “consistency plan” aimed at improving its labor regime in the context of TPP. Separately, U.S. and Mexican labor unions have demanded that Mexico take seven concrete steps to improve labor rights before it becomes a party to TPP.

In his letter, Stein argued that although the U.S. and Mexico maintain an institutionalized bilateral dialogue to discuss labor issues of mutual interest, defining how to address these issues and the timeline for doing so is the exclusive competence of Mexico and its sovereign right.

“At no moment will reaching commitments or determinations be subject to negotiations, conditions, or any type of pressure, interests or views that impede or prevent the development of conditions for decent work for all Mexicans,” he said. 

U.S. Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and his counterpart, Mexican Labor and Social Welfare Secretary Alfonso Navarrete Prida, held a meeting on Aug. 12 in Washington under the auspices of the bilateral dialogue in which they discussed Mexican labor rights as well as TPP. Stein attended the meeting, as did Assistant USTR for Labor Lewis Karesh and USTR Deputy Chief of Staff Behnaz Kibria.

Stein acknowledged in the letter that officials from USTR as well as Mexico's Economy Secretariat had also participated in the working-level discussions that preceded the Perez-Navarrete meeting, and that TPP had been raised in those meetings.

He also made reference to the 2012 labor reform package that has been the subject of complaints by U.S. and Mexican labor groups. They have claimed that the 2012 reforms were insufficient to address the two major problems they see with Mexico's labor regime.

The first is the use of so-called "protection contracts," which are collective bargaining agreements signed between an employer and an employer-dominated union. The second issue is the corruption and inefficiencies that critics say characterize the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards (CABs), which are meant to adjudicate labor complaints and enforce Mexico's labor laws.

Stein said the 2012 reforms, their implementation and “any legislative initiative, regulation or decision are and will be based on our constitutional system and legal framework” will be founded in the country's legal and constitutional order, with the goal promoting decent work for all Mexicans, strengthening labor institutions and ensuring transparency and impartiality. This is a commitment and determination by the Pena Nieto government that rises above any international trade agreement, according to Stein.

Pena Nieto's administration signaled earlier this year in a government-commissioned report that it is willing to make changes to the CABs and combat protection contracts, though it has stopped short of calling for the "constitutional reforms" that labor unions have demanded.
 
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