U.S. Meets with Mexico, Canada on Trade as Labor Disputes Spread

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The trade chiefs of the U.S., Mexico and Canada meet this week after the U.S. and its southern neighbor exchanged complaints about labor conditions.

The first annual meeting of the Free Trade Commission between U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier and Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng takes place virtually on Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday. It comes six weeks before the one-year anniversary of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s entry into force.

Attention on labor issues increased last week after the U.S. asked Mexico, under the deal’s rapid-response mechanism, to review whether employees at a General Motors Co. facility are being denied their rights. The AFL-CIO filed another complaint. Mexico responded by raising concerns about conditions for workers in the U.S. agriculture and meat packing sectors.

Read more: U.S. Asks Mexico to Probe Labor Rights at GM Truck Plant

President Joe Biden’s administration has a number of concerns about Mexico’s performance and commitment to the trade deal that it plans to discuss, and it’s vowed to use all available tools to make sure that Mexico and Canada live up to their promises in the deal, Tai said last month.

Tai is playing a key role in setting and implementing Biden’s trade policy, which they both have promised to focus on workers and the middle class.

“The tools that are in the USMCA are in there for a reason,” Tai told House members at a hearing last week. “They were to make the Nafta better, and they are to make this agreement work. And we must use those tools because we have them and because, frankly, we are committed to our partnership.” Tai was referring to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Environment Issues

Other topics on the agenda include U.S. and Canadian concerns about Mexico’s protections for the environment, access to the U.S. for Mexican truckers and Mexican concerns about seasonal and health rules around the export of live cattle and tomatoes, according to a person familiar with the talks, who asked not to be named because they’re private.

Mexico also is concerned that the rules of origin for production for the automotive industry are being interpreted by the U.S. in a way that is complicating assembly of motor vehicles, the nation’s top manufacturing export, the person said.

The USMCA environment committee will hold its first meeting on June 17, the U.S. said Monday.

The U.S. has faced pressure from the energy industry, which says Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is discriminating against U.S. companies. AMLO, as the president is known, supported major changes to an electricity law and hydrocarbons law to change market rules to favor state-owned Petroleos Mexicanos and electric utility Comision Federal de Electricidad over private firms.

Even as the U.S. presses Mexico on rules for trade, Biden needs Mexico’s help in stopping undocumented migrants from Central America and Mexico’s own citizens from crossing the border into the U.S. Apprehensions climbed to more than 178,000 in April, the highest level in two decades, driven by violence, food shortages, natural disasters and Covid-19’s economic damage.

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