Donald Trump’s threats to impose new high tariffs on Mexico and Canada could blow up the North American trade agreement he negotiated during his first presidency. But trade experts and some of the members of Congress who worked on that deal aren’t sweating what that would mean for the deal’s tight labor protections.
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — NAFTA’s successor — contains the “strictest and most binding tool for enforcing labor rights ever included in a trade agreement,” according to the Brookings Institution. Under the agreement’s rapid response mechanism, individuals can petition the U.S. to investigate labor abuse complaints against facilities in Mexico. The agreement’s labor chapter also contains a prohibition on importing goods made with forced labor.
With the USMCA up for renegotiation in 2026 — and Trump threatening to take parts of it into his own hands as soon as he enters office — the free trade basis of the agreement is under threat. But there’s confidence that the president-elect may actually boost, or at least maintain, existing labor protections.
“It was with the same administration that we did the deal,” Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson told NOTUS. “I think it worked before. Can’t see why they wouldn’t want to listen to my good advice this time.”
Thompson was part of House Democrats’ USMCA working group in 2019, where he helped champion stronger labor protections — one of the key areas that prompted Democrats to ratify the agreement after concerns with its initial text.
Trump has nominated some loud pro-labor voices for his cabinet. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who Trump tapped for labor secretary, has a pro-union record. And while former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer — who spearheaded the effort to gain bipartisan support for the USMCA in Congress and applauded the Mexican labor reforms that preceded the agreement’s enforcement mechanisms — isn’t retaking that job in the new administration, Jamieson Greer, Trump’s pick for the role, worked under Lighthizer.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who was also in the USMCA working group, pointed out Greer’s connection and said Democrats will continue pushing him and Chavez-DeRemer to make a labor commitment.
“I want to be able to have a conversation with the new Department of Labor person here … and talk to the trade representative — I think he was involved those days with Mr. Lighthizer,” DeLauro told NOTUS. “We will continue to press for labor enforcement. That was really a very important piece of the USMCA.”
For Trump and his cabinet, honing in on labor in future iterations of the agreement could be a political advantage — especially with Republicans now pushing to gain support from labor unions.
“If you’re the Republican Party and you’re looking to attract a working-class constituency, which it is, then maybe embracing institutions like this could be beneficial politically,” said Kevin Kolben, who has served as a Department of Labor panelist on two different cases against Mexican facilities under the USMCA’s rapid response mechanism.
“I’m not sure why there would be too much opposition to it at this point,” Kolben told NOTUS, adding that “the days of just throwing the doors open to free trade are done.”
The USMCA’s labor enforcement framework led organizations like the AFL-CIO to back the agreement in 2019.
“For the first time, there truly will be enforceable labor standards — including a process that allows for the inspections of factories and facilities that are not living up to their obligations,” said Richard Trumka, then the president of the AFL-CIO, in a statement after negotiations.
It was a change from previous union reactions to trade negotiations. Labor unions have long been wary of supporting free trade agreements — including NAFTA, which many union members believe took away union jobs and funneled them into facilities in Mexico.
But USMCA’s rapid response mechanism drew unique union support because of its goal of easing pressure on American companies by preventing a “race to the bottom” that would attract companies to Mexico, said Lance Compa, another Department of Labor panelist for the mechanism.
Others, however, are doubtful that labor enforcement will see such a cheerful reception. Trump may not move to get rid of it entirely, but it may not be a priority for the administration either, Kathleen Claussen, a law professor at Georgetown University with expertise in international trade, told NOTUS.
“There’s no reason for him to necessarily please the unions, unless he thinks maybe it helps him to look particularly strong if he does use these tools. But I just don’t see them being that high on the priority list,” she said.
She added that the first Trump administration was lukewarm about embracing labor enforcement under the USMCA.
“All we know from the first Trump administration — in the very, very short time they were in office when this tool was around — is that they were given some petitions and information about potential rapid response situations, which they rejected on the basis of not having enough information or some other reason that we don’t know,” Claussen said. “There was a possibility of using it, and they chose not to.”
Under President Joe Biden, the number of cases brought against Mexican facilities under the rapid response mechanism increased each year between 2021 and 2023.
Sen. Ron Wyden — who criticized the Trump administration for its lack of labor enforcement under the agreement — suggested labor enforcement will be a deal-breaker yet again for Democrats as USMCA renegotiation looms.
“I expect Trump to hold Mexico and Canada to every promise they made in the deal he negotiated and Congress approved, including the labor commitments that benefit American workers,” Wyden said in a statement to NOTUS.
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Shifra Dayak is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.