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.