[CTC] Mexican official: Labor reform legislation slated to pass by the end of April

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Mexican official: Labor reform legislation slated to pass by the end of April
Inside US Trade, 2/19/2019
 
Mexican Trade Under Secretary Maria Luz de la Mora said last week that legislation enacting Mexican labor reforms called for in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement is expected to be passed by the Mexican Congress before the end of the legislative session, in April.

Draft reform legislation <https://insidetrade.com/sites/insidetrade.com/files/documents/2019/jan/wto2019_0002.pdf> was introduced by the MORENA party in the Chamber of Deputies on Dec. 30. The legislation must pass the Chamber of Deputies before it can be can be introduced in the Mexican Senate.

“The legislation proposes to have an independent body that will be in charge of monitoring ,verifying [and] revising that contracts are done based on the new law, which will guarantee democracy in the trade union, will guarantee free voting, re-election of leaders, collective bargaining rights, [and] very importantly to guarantee labor justice in an independent entity and moving it from the executive branch to the judiciary branch,” de la Mora said at a Feb. 15 event hosted by the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. “I think you can expect to see a new, modern law that responds to these concerns that are way overdue, and we hope to have this done probably by the end of April.”

An annex to the labor chapter of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement says Mexico must pass key labor reforms by Jan. 1. It also says the agreement's entry into force could be “delayed until such legislation becomes effective.” The Mexican Congress did not meet <https://insidetrade.com/node/165431> the Jan. 1 deadline.

“With or without USMCA we would be looking at a very substantive labor reform in Mexico,” de la Mora said, emphasizing that the reforms under discussion amounted to “really a very, very substantive change to what Mexico has had in terms of workers' rights, collective bargaining, labor justice. It really changes 180 degrees from where we are to where we want to be.”

U.S. Democratic lawmakers have identified Mexican labor reform and enforceable labor provisions in USMCA as key factors <https://insidetrade.com/node/165267> to weigh in deciding whether to back the agreement. Democrats and Republicans alike have also identified Trump administration tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, which have prompted retaliatory tariffs from Mexico and others, as an issue that should be resolved before the ratification of USMCA.

“Before Congress considers legislation to implement USMCA, the Administration should lift tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from our top two trading partners and secure the elimination of retaliatory tariffs that stand to wipe out gains our farmers have made over the past two and a half decades,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) said in a Dec. 30 Gazette column <https://www.thegazette.com/subject/opinion/guest-columnist/iowa-trade-agriculture-nafta-usmac-tariff-chuck-grassley-mike-naig-20190130> written with Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said last week that his department had been calling on the White House and on U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to lift the tariffs <https://insidetrade.com/node/165852>.

Mexican and Canadian government officials have also urged the U.S. to remove the tariffs. At the event last week, de la Mora said Mexico was in the “process of evaluating” a new list of U.S. products for retaliatory tariffs. Inside U.S. Trade reported in December that Mexico would be retooling its retaliatory tariff list <https://insidetrade.com/node/165191> to catch the attention of the 116th Congress.

“We will pick and choose new products in the steel sector and also in the agricultural sector,” de la Mora said. “You can expect to see something new in the next couple of months.”

De la Mora also said Mexico “does not enjoy retaliation” and “is not ready to just establish tariffs for the sake of establishing tariffs.”

“We don't feel that that's the way to go. The previous administration imposed tariffs because those were seen as the only alternative to the decision by the U.S. administration to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum, that we feel have no merit because Mexico can hardly be considered a national security threat to the U.S.,” de la Mora said. “That's why we have kept those retaliatory tariffs, because we feel that that's the way in which the U.S. can think twice before doing these kinds of things.”


Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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