XINHUA

The Mexican government has rejected a U.S. proposal to send labor inspectors to supervise the application of new regulations contained in a revised free trade agreement, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) said on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

“We don’t accept that, that is, having some kind of inspectors to see if a company is complying with the law,” AMLO said during his daily press conference.

“It’s a complicated topic, but we are dealing with it with complete clarity, with complete transparency.”

According to Lopez Obrador, the proposal was put forward by Democratic lawmakers as the U.S. Congress reviews the contents of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), prior to approval.

The USMCA, the replacement of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), has been approved by Mexico’s Congress, but needs to be ratified by the legislatures of the other two parties before it can take effect.

Mexico made a counter proposal to the Democratic bid, said López Obrador, which recommends establishing a panel to resolve any labor disputes, with representatives of both countries and a neutral third party.

Mexico’s Business Coordinating Council (CCE), the country’s largest business confederation, agreed with the government, deeming the U.S. proposal “totally unacceptable.”

A top Mexican envoy is currently in Washington to discuss the matter with U.S. lawmakers.