• OBJECTION: Mexico’s North American trade negotiator, Jesús Seade, has objected the dispatch of up to five labor attachés to Mexican territory as part of a proposed US implementing legislation necessary to enact the new regional trade agreement with Mexico and Canada (USMCA).
• VISIT: Just one day ahead of a visit he will pay to the US Trade Representative, Bob Lighthizer, Seade launched a tweetstorm trying to convey that that despite the Mexican Senate having already ratified the deal last week, Mexico objected to the labor attachés provision included in the bill.
• PASSAGE: Late on Friday, Democrats in the House of Representatives’ Ways and Means Committee presented the USMCA implementing legislation that is expected to be considered at some point this week before the Christmas recess; it’s still not clear how leadership will react to Mexico.
• OPPOSITION: “Adding the designation of five labor attaches to monitor the implementation of labor reform in Mexico is totally unacceptable since it implies an additional mechanism other than what was agreed under the USMCA”, said Ricardo Monreal, the Senate majority leader from the Morena party.
