Labor Caucus Calls for Stronger Labor Standards in USMCA Joint Review

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Labor Caucus Co-Chairs Reps. Debbie Dingell (MI-06), Mark Pocan (WI-02), Donald Norcross (NJ-01), and Steven Horsford (NV-04) led 65 House Democrats in a letter urging US Trade Representative Greer to use the 2026 joint review of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) to improve labor standards and address the continued offshoring of good jobs.

“As part of the Joint Review, we urge you to use this process to improve labor standards under the USMCA and address the continued offshoring of good jobs and critical productive capacity so that the Agreement truly supports American workers,” wrote the lawmakers. “The USMCA was an improvement over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) as it relates to labor standards for workers across North America, but the Agreement was always intended to be a floor, and not a ceiling.”

“Indeed, despite those improvements, the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico still increased by nearly 75 percent to $172 billion since 2019 (the last year before the USMCA came into force),” continued the lawmakers. In autos, the trade imbalance between the US and Mexico has increased by $30.9 billion or 34% between 2018 and 2023. As we approach the first Joint Review of the USMCA, it is clear that significantly more action is needed to address the offshoring of American jobs and to address the race to the bottom in worker wages, rights, and working conditions.”

“Accordingly, we urge you to use the 2026 Joint Review process to comprehensively address the issues of the offshoring of american jobs, closing the wage gap, Mexican labor law reform and technical assistance funding, strengthening and expanding the rapid response mechanism, fully enforcing forces labor import ban, cracking down non chinese investments and transshipments in Mexico, strengthening rules of origin and clarifying the country of origin labeling,” concluded the lawmakers.

A full copy of the letter can be found here. The letter was signed by 69 House Democrats.

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The Congressional Labor Caucus is composed of more than 120 Members of Congress working to protect and advance workers’ rights.