AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said Wednesday his group would push the new Democratic majority in the House to demand tougher enforcement language in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement before it’s approved.
Trumka indicated unions would support the deal to replace the old North American Free Trade Agreement when it comes up for a vote likely next year provided these changes can be made, and if they could be assured that the agreement’s provisions on factory wages and auto part rules of origin will work as advertised.
“It is more likely that the trade deal will be more enforceable now” that Democrats have the majority, Trumka told reporters Wednesday. “The things that we don’t know about the trade deal will be unfolding … A better [version of] NAFTA is likely to happen.”
The comments are good news for the administration, as they indicate that labor doesn’t have a major issue with the substance of the USMCA, and therefore won’t urge its supporters in Congress to flatly reject it. Democrats have been circumspect in discussing the deal, but have hinted at modest support for it.
Under Trade Promotion Authority, the law that covers submitting trade deals to Congress, lawmakers cannot amend the terms of a submitted deal, and can only vote to approve or reject it. Trumka argued there was still room to adjust the USMCA, by clarifying how its terms are monitored and enforced.
“There is a thing called the implementing language. That is a bill … that can give strong implementing language, weak implementing language, or no implementation at all,” he said. “When we see the implementing language, then we will know if it is a deal we can and will support — or we don’t.”
The USMCA’s main provision requires that 75 percent of the parts of a car need to be made in North America for it to be duty-free, up from the 62.5 percent level set by NAFTA. It also requires that at least 40 percent of all auto content be made by workers making at least $16 an hour or equivalent. Democrats and unions have long called for such measures to protect domestic jobs.
But unions are worried the deal is all for show. In a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative late last month, Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers and chairman of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office’s official Labor Advisory Committee, said he was worried that the deal’s provisions to require Mexican factories to pay $16 an hour had loopholes and were not enforceable in their current form.
