Mexico trade negotiator: We'll never accept US 'inspectors'
Updated 3:44 pm CST, Sunday, December 15, 2019
Photo: Marco Ugarte, AP
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Deputy Prime Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland, left, Mexico's top trade negotiator Jesus Seade, center, and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, sign an update to the North American Free Trade Agreement, at the national palace in Mexico City, Tuesday, Dec. 10. 2019. Observing from behind are Mexico's Treasury Secretary Arturo Herrera, left, Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, second left, Mexico's Labor Secretary Maria Alcade, third left, and The President of the Mexican Senate Ricardo Monreal.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s trade negotiator for North America said Sunday that Mexico categorically opposes allowing foreign labor inspectors to operate in the country, saying that was not contemplated in the recent agreement with Washington and Ottawa on the USMCA pact to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Jesús Seade was flying to Washington to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and U.S. lawmakers to express his country’s “surprise and concern” over language in implementation legislation introduced Friday in the U.S. Congress calling for the posting of up to five labor attaches to monitor Mexico’s labor reform.
Seade, an undersecretary in the Foreign Relations Department, said on Twitter that while the proposed attaches exact functions are not yet clear, “Mexico will NEVER accept them if it is in any way about disguised inspectors, for one simple reason: Mexican law prohibits it.”
Mexican negotiators have said they stood firm in opposition to the idea of letting in foreign inspectors out of sovereignty principles. Instead the agreement signed Dec. 10 in Mexico City called for three-person panels to field any disputes, with the panels including one person from Mexico, one from the United States and a person from a third country chosen by mutual consent.
More:
https://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Mexico-trade-negotiator-We-ll-never-accept-US-14908396.php
Also posted in LBN:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142408029
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