[CTC] Ways & Means Democrats: NAFTA funding ‘not being used as intended’

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Ways & Means Democrats: USMCA funding ‘not being used as intended’
By Isabelle Icso, Inside US Trade 
07/24/2020
Funds appropriated to implement the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement are not being distributed in a manner consistent with the “spirit” of the deal, a group of Democratic lawmakers said this week, urging the administration to ensure the money is properly allocated.
“Congress allocated substantial funding for this resource-intensive work because it is absolutely necessary for the effective implementation of Mexico’s labor reform,” the lawmakers wrote in a July23 letter <https://insidetrade.com/sites/insidetrade.com/files/documents/2020/jul/wto2020_0336.pdf> sent to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia. The letter was signed by all members of the House USMCA working group as well as every Democrat on the House Ways & Means Committee.
The lawmakers said they have significant concerns that resources provided to the Labor Department’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs via the USMCA implementing bill “are not being used as intended” to support “desperately needed worker-focused capacity building activities in Mexico.”
“In approving the USMCA Implementation Act, Congress appropriated significant financial resources to support and ensure the implementation and enforcement of required labor law reforms in Mexico,” the lawmakers continued, citing $180 million that “shall be used to support reforms of the labor justice system in Mexico, including grants to support worker focused capacity building” and related activities managed by the Labor Department.
“[W]e are concerned that those substantial resources will not be deployed where they are most needed to enable the long-awaited labor reforms -- which is to support worker organizing and worker-driven initiatives to defend basic rights and strengthen authentic representation,” the letter states.
Mexico in 2019 passed labor legislation required by USMCA that was crafted to reform the country’s labor justice system, eradicate so-called protection contracts signed between companies and company-dominated unions without workers’ consent, and require the exercise of democratic voting and election processes.
However, the lawmakers say “these problems persist” and contend that Mexico’s reforms will not be effective “without direct, robust and proactive worker capacity building.”
“Employers continue to sign new protection contracts with employer-dominated unions that workers have not voted on or even seen, and workers who speak up and attempt to improve labor conditions continue to face intimidation and harassment,” they wrote. “Even more troublesome, in several recently documented cases workers have suffered physical violence, disappearances and deaths as a result their activism, including one death in May.”
The installation of “basic workplace democracy” in Mexico will require a concerted and coordinated effort, “including building the government’s administrative and technical capacity to implement the recent labor reform,” the Democrats said. They called on the administration to provide a written response that outlines how USMCA funds are being used.
The USMCA working group, set up to negotiate changes to USMCA with the Trump administration before the deal was ratified, recently claimed Mexico was falling short in its implementation of labor reforms. Its grievances were detailed in a July 8 letter <https://insidetrade.com/node/169183> to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. 
 
Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




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