Independent Expert Board Finds Mexico Failing to Honor Labor Obligations Under USMCA Trade Agreement

For the first time, the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board (IMLEB), has found that Mexico has failed to live up to its labor obligations under the c (USMCA).

IMLEB is a body created by the US Congress under the USMCA to monitor and report on Mexico’s implementation and enforcement of necessary labor reforms. In its new report, submitted to Congress, the Board has determined that “Mexico is not in compliance with its labor obligations under USMCA.”

“When the United States set out to renegotiate NAFTA in 2019 with the explicit objective of dramatically reducing the U.S.-Mexico trade deficit and addressing the failures of NAFTA, there was bipartisan support in government,” the Board writes in their Conclusion.” Creating a really fair-trade deal would require a truly transformative agreement. A successful agreement would need to curb job loss in the US and reduce the wage gap between US and Mexican workers, which for decades has enabled hundreds of thousands of layoffs for US workers and heavily suppressed wages for Mexican workers.

“If a measure of success is a reduction of the wage gap between Mexican workers and their North American counterparts,” the Board continues, “USMCA is a failure.”

The UAW applauds the findings of the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board. In 2026, the USMCA agreement is up for review. The UAW is calling for a complete overhaul of our broken trade system. We need a new generation of trade deals that puts working people first. A fair-trade deal must give workers a seat at the table, raise the floor rather than race to the bottom, and enshrine the principle of equal pay for equal work across borders.

Under the USMCA, corporate America is making record profits gouging American consumers while US and Mexican workers see stagnant wages and worsening labor conditions. The USMCA has continued to pit Mexican and US workers against one another, with terrible consequences for the working class in both countries, and the deal must be abandoned or rewritten in 2026.