• ASSURANCES: Mexico’s displeasure with one provision in the US implementing bill for the new North America trade agreement (USMCA) cooled off after the Trump Administration gave assurances that US labor attachés contemplated to operate in Mexico will not have inspection duties.
• DISCONTENT: Over the weekend, Mexican negotiator Jesús Seade had expressed his discontent with the addition of a provision to the USMCA’s implementing bill to hire up to five US labor attachés to be deployed in Mexico. The US House of Representatives is expected to consider it this week.
• ATTACHÉS: “The Administration included language in the USMCA implementing legislation authorizing up to five attachés…These personnel will not be ‘labor inspectors’ and will abide by all relevant Mexican laws”, US trade representative Robert Lighthizer said in a letter to Seade.
• CRISIS: Lighthizer’s letter settles an odd 48 hour controversy that threatened a deal that the US, Canada and Mexico had signed last week in Mexico City to grand fanfare. Mexico’s discomfort with the implementing bill came up after the Mexican Senate itself had ratified the agreement on Thursday.
