U.S. Trade Rep. Katherine Tai testified in front of the Senate Finance Committee today on the Biden administration's trade agenda. She was asked about the USMCA rapid response labor cases I noted in my previous post:
Senator Brown:
Let me talk about what you would expect me to ask about, the Brown-Wyden rapid response mechanism. During your confirmation hearing, you committed to fully enforcing the USMCA agreement with Brown-Wyden. Today under your leadership, for the first time, self initiated an enforcement case under that mechanism. Thank you for that. We have now two Brown-Wyden cases, as you know. I'd like to ask you two or three questions, I'll ask them together and just get you talking a little more about Brown-Wyden, to explain it to people, how it's working, a sense of how many cases we might expect under this mechanism, some sort of ballpark estimate, talk to me about how the hotline works if you would, how do workers file complaints, do you take tips and come in through the hotline seriously, and tell me what does full use of the Brown-Wyden mechanism look like to you in the months and years ahead.
Ambassador Tai:
... On the Brown-Wyden rapid response labor enforcement mechanism, let me just distinguish a little bit between the two announcements this week.
The first one was a petition that was filed by the AFL CIO in partnership with several other labor organizations. That is the very very beginning of a petition process, and as constructed, there is a 30 day period during which USTR, working with the Department of Labor, will review that petition for whether follow up is needed, and whether USTR should then request Mexico to review whether a denial of rights has happened.
In the second case that has been initiated today, that was self initiated, and as you've noted, that is USTR initiating the request to Mexico today that will start the next timeline under the mechanism that's been created.
In terms of the tips and hotline and taking in information from people with experience of what's happening on the ground at some of these facilities, absolutely we take that information extremely seriously.
