The Biden administration used a trade agreement negotiated under the first Trump administration, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), to empower workers in the trade sector in Mexico through targeted enforcement.
Will President-elect Trump abandon the “worker-centered” trade agenda of the USMCA?
That is unlikely. President Trump negotiated the USMCA to ensure that lax labor rights in Mexico would not offer U.S. companies incentives to move their facilities south of the border. By enforcing the USMCA’s labor rights in Mexico, the Biden administration protected workers in Mexico while, incidentally, achieving Trump’s objective to equalize production costs in the two countries.
If anything, the second Trump term will increase enforcement of the USMCA’s labor protections in Mexico. LeClercq’s recent study, forthcoming from Cornell University, shows that the Mexican workers who benefitted under USMCA during the Biden administration had connections to U.S. labor unions and NGOs.
The Trump administration will likely de-politicize that enforcement and expand it to cover additional Mexican facilities. Doing so ensures that no companies in Mexico benefit from U.S. market access by evading the rules.
University of Georgia School of Law Assistant Professor of Law & Faculty Co-Director of the Dean Rusk International Law Center Desirée LeClercq, who specializes in international labor law and worked in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative during the previous Trump administration, as well as in the International Labor Organization and at the National Labor Relations Board, is available for further commentary at desireelc@uga.edu.
