[CTC] López Obrador to visit U.S. for USMCA entry-into-force ceremony

[Arthur Stamoulis]

López Obrador to visit U.S. for USMCA entry-into-force ceremony
By Isabelle Icso, Inside US Trade
06/25/2020
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador plans to visit the U.S. to celebrate the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s entry into force, he said this week.
During a press conference <https://twitter.com/EmbamexEUA/status/1276159459040133122> on Thursday, López Obrador said he expected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to attend. The White House and the Canadian government declined to comment.
The event likely will not be held on the entry-into-force date, July 1, because that is the two-year anniversary of his election victory, López Obrador added.
Roberto Velasco Álvarez, director of North America for Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a Thursday tweet <https://twitter.com/r_velascoa/status/1275914048136253441> said the meeting should be focused on taking “advantage of all diplomatic instruments to promote the [USMCA], an agreement that gives us preferential access to the largest market in the world and that grants economic certainty.” He said the visit will come at a time when all countries are “suffering from the economic crisis” stemming from the coronavirus pandemic.
Also on Thursday, Mexican Economy Secretary Graciela Márquez Colín said she expected López Obrador to “ratify” the country’s commitment to “a free trade agreement with Canada and the U.S.” during the visit and “send a signal” that Mexico is a reliable trading partner. She spoke during a webinar <https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/governing-north-american-trade-during-a-pandemic-knowns-and-unknowns-for-usmca/> hosted by the Atlantic Council.
Márquez Colín also said Mexico was working on a “pre-emptive policy” to ensure the country complies with USMCA’s labor chapter.
Labor enforcement has been a key issue throughout the NAFTA renegotiation process, and a key factor for U.S. Democratic lawmakers in weighing whether to back USMCA. Last week Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden (D-OR) said he continued to have “major concerns about Mexico's ability to stay on track with implementing their labor obligations, and with our ability to monitor and enforce them.”
“The [Trump] administration has to hit the ground running on trade law enforcement, on day one,” he said during a June 17 hearing on the administration’s 2020 trade agenda.
Márquez Colín said Mexico was distributing directions to companies to ensure the country’s new labor laws are being followed. “We are working with the chambers of commerce in Mexico so that we have a pre-emptive policy which is to be prepared, understand what you have to do -- it’s a new law,” she said. Mexico passed is labor law reform in April 2019.
“So … authorities and firms workers need to understand what are the new rules of the game so that we can comply [with USMCA],” she added. “We have produced a checklist so that firms, unions and authorities understand what’s going on plant-by-plant so that so that we can have pre-emptive measures before any demand arises.”
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last week faced several questions from lawmakers about how the Trump administration planned to enforce the deal’s labor obligations <https://insidetrade.com/node/169032>.
“I can assure the [House Ways & Means Committee] that, when it does go into effect, we will take action early and often when there are problems,” Lighthizer said during a June 17 hearing. “[W]e've built in a very good system, [a] rapid-response system plus a state-to-state dispute settlement system. We have committees. We have ways for congressional involvement. And the … administration will follow through.”
Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20200626/1f6b24d8/attachment.html>