USA, Canada and Mexico: New trade deal signed including important labour rights clauses
“US, Canada and Mexico sign trade pact to replace NAFTA”, 10th December 2019
…Top officials from Canada, Mexico, and the United States signed a fresh overhaul of a quarter-century-old trade pact on Tuesday that aims to improve enforcement of worker rights and hold down prices for biologic drugs by eliminating a patent provision.
The signing ceremony in Mexico City launched what may be the final approval effort for US President Donald Trump's three-year quest to revamp the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a deal he has blamed for the loss of millions of US manufacturing jobs…
The result of a rare show of bipartisan and cross-border cooperation in the Trump era of global trade conflicts, the deal was inked the same day as he became the fourth US president in history to face formal impeachment…
Intense negotiations over the past week among Democrats, the Trump administration and Mexico produced more stringent rules on labour rights aimed at reducing Mexico's low-wage advantage, including verification of labour compliance at the factory level by independent labour experts…
In addition to the labour provisions, Democrats said they won elimination of a 10-year data exclusivity period for biologic drugs from the agreement, which they feared would lead to higher US drug prices…