[CTC] Levin: No Democratic support for NAFTA without Mexican labor reform

[Arthur Stamoulis]

INSIDE US TRADE
 
Levin: No Democratic support for NAFTA without Mexican labor reform

September 25, 2017 
Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI), a key Democrat on the House Ways and Means committee, said Monday that the labor text the U.S. was considering tabling at the third round of North American Free Trade Agreement talks was not robust enough to address Mexican labor issues -- and predicted that few, if any, in his party will back a retooled deal without significant reforms.

Sources have said the U.S. is expected to table text on labor <https://insidetrade.com/node/160388> during the third round. Levin, who was in Ottawa early in the round, said U.S. negotiators were set to decide by Monday whether to table the labor text, adding that there was opposition to doing so from those in the labor movement.

“It’s very rudimentary,” Levin, a former ranking member and chairman of Ways and Means, told reporters after a Council on Foreign Relations event in Washington, DC. “It’s very incomplete. It doesn’t begin to do the trick.”

Sources told Inside U.S. Trade last week that the nascent U.S. proposal was “unorthodox” -- and noted that the U.S. summary of its negotiating objectives, unveiled in July, said the U.S. would “ensure that these labor obligations are subject to the same dispute settlement mechanism that applies to other enforceable obligations of the Agreement.”

Levin said the U.S. position, which was largely taken from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, does not do enough to address the issue of labor costs.

“It’s not nearly enough to address this basic structural problem,” he said of the text. “It’s a very major issue.”

During his remarks, Levin said “Mexico's industrial policy of suppressed low wages, combined with increase security of investment, became a magnet for its industrial growth. A key factor has been the maintenance of very low labor costs, ingrained in a structure that suppresses any voices to workers in the workplace.”

Levin also lamented the use of “protection agreements” that cover Mexican workers “without a voice as to a contract, or even of their existence, often signed before there are any employees."

“Ensuring labor rights in Mexico will help workers there climb out of poverty, while protecting American jobs and wages from a race to the bottom,” Levin said.

Last Friday, Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray Caso said that Mexico was willing to address labor reforms in NAFTA and that it was in Mexico's “best interest <https://insidetrade.com/node/160381>” to do so.

Levin predicted on Monday that few if any in his party will back an updated North American Free Trade Agreement without significant Mexican labor reform.

“Without dramatic changes occurring before there would be a vote on the revised NAFTA, under these conditions, I don’t think there would be virtually any Democratic support in Congress,” Levin said.

Levin said “a lot of work” was needed on the labor cost issue, as well as on rules of origin and intellectual property, but he added that “I think we’re at the start of meaningful negotiations.”

Asked about congressional consultations on NAFTA as the talks progress, Levin said there had been “useful,” bipartisan discussions with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, but added that “I think they need to very much now have much more meaningful discussions with Congress and they need to so in a way that they quickly become public.”

Also expressing concern about the U.S. labor proposal was Jerry Dias, the president of Unifor, a major Canadian union. He sent Lighthizer a letter <http://www.unifor.org/sites/default/files/attachments/robert_lighthizer.pdf> on Sept. 25, warning against the use of TPP language on labor in a new NAFTA.

Dias said TPP does not include any explicit reference to the eight core International Labor Organization obligations, is silent on gender equality, and is insufficient in the areas of child labor and penalties for governments or employers breaching labor rights.

Dias also urged the U.S. Trade Representative to rectify the “sustained and recurring” and “in a manner affecting trade” requirements brought to light earlier this year in the context of the U.S. labor complaint against Guatemala <https://insidetrade.com/node/159326> under the Dominican Republic-Central America Free Trade Agreement.

“Aside from all that is not contained in the TPP,” he added, “I am most concerned that -- when tested -- U.S. trade language is ill-equipped to ensure enforceability of the standard it sets. I look no further than the recent decision of the panel appointed under Chapter 20 of the DR-CAFTA, with respect to a U.S.-led complaint on labour rights in Guatemala.”

“It is not enough for us simply to lament the panel’s decision,” Dias continued. “Untouched, the U.S. runs the risk of having that panel decision influence future decisions. Fortunately, NAFTA renegotiations are upon us. This is our first opportunity, collectively, to address the shortcomings of the DR-CAFTA language, and to draw on the experience to better improve our approach to labour rights. We have to take advantage of this moment. We cannot fail.” -- Anshu Siripurapu (anshus at iwpnews.com <mailto:anshus at iwpnews.com>)
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