Mexico’s new president will ask the country’s Congress to pass a major labor reform bill this spring as a necessary step to ratifying the new USMCA trade deal, according to media reports. Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration is also reportedly ready to “keep the status quo” with NAFTA if Mexico is not exempted from the US’ Section 232 tariffs.
In an interview with the Financial Post, Mexico’s deputy trade minister, Luz Maria de la Mora, said President Obrador “made it clear in his election campaign that he wanted to strengthen the rights of workers and labor unions.”
According to de la Mora, Mexico’s new government wants to ratify a labor reform package before Congress adjourns on April 30, “so we can reflect the commitments that we’ve made under the new US-Mexico-Canada agreement in domestic legislation.”
The new agreement will be sent to Congress for ratification after it reconvenes in September, but ratification will depend on the US lifting Section 232 tariffs on Mexican steel and aluminum imports. If that doesn’t happen, de la Mora said “Mexico is fine” with the current version of NAFTA.
“We hope to have this new agreement in place. But in the absence of the new agreement, we know that NAFTA is good enough,” de la Mora said.