Chad Bown and Kathleen Claussen, The Rapid Response Labor Mechanism of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, Peterson Institute of International Economics Working Paper, October 2023.
Reviews background of labor-related negotiations in USMCA; describes how RRM works, and financial and human resources employed in implementing it; reviews RRM use, largely in auto sector; sums up lessons and discusses how facility-specific mechanisms for labor, environment and other issues could be included in future economic agreements.
Kathleen Claussen:
“A First Look at the New Labor Provisions in the USMCA Protocol of Amendment”, International Economic Law and Policy Blog, Dec. 12, 2019
Reimagining Trade-Plus Compliance: The Labor Story. 23 Journal of International Economic Law 25-43 (2020)
Lance Compa, Trump, Trade and Trabajo: Renegotiating NAFTA’s Labor Accord in a Fraught Political Climate, 26 Indiana J. Global Legal Studies 263 (2019)
Independent Mexico Labor Export Board (created by §734, USMCA Implementation Act, PL 116-113):
Interim Report 2020: Dec. 15, 2020.
Report, July 7, 2021
Report, March 20, 2023
A Worker-Centered Trade Policy, 61 Columbia J. of Transnational Law 733 (2023)
May 16 2021 blogpost on recent RRM activity, on limited scope of Labor Rapid Response Mechanism with respect to labor rights in US
September 4, 2023 Labor Day blogpost: argues that Labor Rapid Response Mechanism excludes protections for vulnerable workers in US trade sectors through footnote in USMCA Annex 31-A; urges action to delete the footnote to make USMCA more equitable; also urges that Mexican government invoke RRM to protest alleged freedom of association and collective bargaining violations in US airline companies.
Alvaro Santos: “Reimagining Trade Agreements for Workers: Lessons from the USMCA” AJIL Unbound, Dec. 9, 2019