§4645 Recommendation for Enforcement Action

Summary

When the Interagency Labor Committee finds a USMCA country failed to meet its labor duties—based on an assessment under section 4644, monitoring under section 4642(1), or a report from the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board—and that failure includes duties in Annex 23–A, the Committee must recommend the U.S. Trade Representative start enforcement. The recommendation is to begin action under article 23.13 or 23.17 (cooperative labor talks), articles 31.4 and 31.6 (dispute-settlement talks), or Annex 31–A (the rapid response labor mechanism). Within 60 days after getting that recommendation, the Trade Representative must decide whether to start enforcement. If the Trade Representative decides not to act, they must send a report to the appropriate congressional committees explaining why.