Just days after a landmark agreement on a trade pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico on Saturday objected to legislation introduced in the US Congress as part of an eventual ratification of the deal.
Mexican Undersecretary for North America Jesus Seade said that most of the bill is in line with the typical process of ratification, but it also “adds the designation of up to five US labor attaches in Mexico tasked with monitoring the implementation of the labor reform that is under way in our country.”
Seade said that was not part of the agreement signed on Tuesday last week in Mexico City by his government, the US and Canada to replace NAFTA, but was rather the product of “political decisions by the Congress and administration of the United States.”
Mexico should have been consulted but was not, Seade said, “and, of course, we are not in agreement.”
It resisted the idea of having foreign inspectors on its soil out of sovereignty principles, and that the agreement provided for panels to resolve disputes on labor and other areas, Mexico said.
The three-person panels would comprise a person chosen by the US, one by Mexico and a third-party agreed upon by both nations.
Seade called the designation of labor attaches “unnecessary and redundant,” and said that the presence of foreign officials must be authorized by the host country.
“US officials accredited at their embassy and consulates in Mexico, as a labor attache could be, may not in any case have inspection powers under Mexican law,” he added.
Seade said that he sent a letter to US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressing Mexico’s “surprise and concern” over the matter and that he would travel to Washington yesterday to convey the message personally to Lighthizer and US lawmakers.
“We reserve the right to review the scope and effects of these provisions, which our government and people will no doubt clearly see as unnecessary,” Seade said the letter read. “Additionally, I advise you that Mexico will evaluate not only the measures proposed in the [bill] ... but the establishment of reciprocal mechanisms in defense of our country’s interests.”
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