Mexico

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he will tell a visiting U.S. House delegation on Friday to conclude the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement’s “approval process ASAP.”

As House lawmakers get set to visit Mexico City this weekend, House Ways & Means trade subcommittee chairman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) told Inside U.S. Trade he plans to get a “better perspective” on a roadmap issued by the Mexican government last month outlining labor reform implementation.

The letter calls for amending the deal to reflect “the balance achieved in the bipartisan May 10, 2007, agreement.”

The farm group wants changes to labor, enforcement, environmental and biologics provisions.

Asked if House Sepaker Pelosi’s public calls to re-open the agreement were sparked by pressure from first-term Democrats – and would give her cover to say she tried if she failed – Grassley responded, “Yes to both questions.”

The administration “can make some changes” to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement to win Democratic votes, President Trump said on Wednesday, while House Ways & Means trade subcommittee chairman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said his caucus was “open” to negotiating how those adjustments could be made.

Mexico has outlined and submitted to Capitol Hill a “proposed roadmap” showing how it plans to implement its labor law reforms through 2023.

Mexican labor unions -- most of them employer-dominated -- are challenging the constitutionality of newly passed labor legislation required by the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, with nearly 100 separate cases filed in district courts this month.

The chairman of a key committee in the Mexican Senate told his U.S. counterparts this month that Mexican workers in the tomato industry could lose their jobs if the U.S. doesn't agree to a new suspension agreement, which could make them turn to immigration “as an option.”