Remedying Labor Violations of the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement on Both Sides of the Border

The labor provisions of the United States’ Free Trade Agreements contain language that allows labor violations to seep through unpenalized. Parties to the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA) sought to rectify this by drafting the most comprehensive labor provisions of any free trade agreement to date by crafting the Facility-Specific Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM). This Mechanism provides that a particular facility found to be in violation of the USMCA labor provisions must enforce a remediation plan that preserves workers’ rights or face the threat of losing its preferential trade status. The most salient way facilities breach the USMCA’s labor provisions is by infringing or denying workers’ right to free association and collective bargaining. In surveying the cases resolved under the RRM, this Comment makes clear that this Mechanism, though more efficient than its predecessor, contains significant constraints that curb its ability to enhance labor conditions in Mexico and provide redress to workers. To ameliorate these shortcomings of the USMCA, this Comment proposes a judicial solution: Workers should invoke the transitory tort doctrine in U.S. courts to hold U.S. firms accountable for labor violations occurring on Mexican soil. This litigation strategy can provide recourse to Mexican workers to the extent that the USMCA has fallen short of meeting this lofty goal.