USTR Invokes Labor Review of Mexican Meat Processing Facility
The U.S. invoked the rapid response labor mechanism under USMCA to investigate a Mexican meat processing facility. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative said that it had received a petition alleging that workers at the Alimentos Grole facility in Mexico are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The U.S. has therefore suspended liquidation of unliquidated entries of goods from the facility.
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In an Aug. 28 news release, USTR said it received the petition on July 29 from a group of former and current Alimentos Grole workers affiliated with a Mexican labor union. The petition alleged that the facility violated workers’ rights by "threatening and dismissing workers to discourage union activity and by forming and promoting a company-aligned internal union."
The Interagency Labor Committee for Monitoring and Enforcement, co-chaired by the USTR and the secretary of labor, conducted a review and determined that there is "sufficient, credible evidence of a denial of rights" which enables the "good-faith invocation" of enforcement mechanisms. The USTR has submitted a request to Mexico that it review "whether workers at Alimentos Grole are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining." Mexico must conduct a review within 10 days and, if it agrees with the allegations, has 45 days to complete the review.