Sarah Kirwin Quoted in Latin America Advisor on USMCA Labor Uncertainty

Akin Gump international trade associate Sarah Kirwin has been quoted in the Latinvex article “Labor Rules Spur USMCA Uncertainty.” The article discusses the AFL-CIO’s recent announcement that it would file two public complaints under the new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s (USMCA) labor enforcement mechanism, one of which could lead to the possible suspension of exports from individual factories in Mexico that violate labor rights provisions.

According to Kirwin, Mexico’s ability to adequately enforce its labor reform law has been of particular concern for both Democrats in Congress and key labor groups such as the AFL-CIO, which prompted the creation of the USMCA’s facility-specific Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRLM). While the labor organization has not yet shared the subject of its complaints, she said the RRLM addresses several “priority sectors.”

Kirwin pointed out that Mexico has emphasized “significant compliance efforts” by both the government and private sector, so the RRLM will ultimately determine the legitimacy of the AFL-CIO’s concerns. It is not surprising, though, she said, that there are ongoing tensions over labor compliance in the USMCA, since “none of the USMCA parties conducted a thorough legal scrub of the agreement’s text.” Those tensions, Kirwin added, “could imminently lead to a number of dispute settlement cases, which is hardly a good omen for a new agreement—lauded by U.S. officials as a ‘gold standard’—between historically close trading partners.”