MEXICO CITY, April 26 (Reuters) - A labor panel under the trilateral trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico and Canada has ruled in favor of Mexico, which argued the agreement did not have the jurisdiction to review alleged labor rights violations at a mine in the country, Mexico said on Friday.
The U.S. had requested a probe last year into alleged workers rights abuses at a Grupo Mexico mine in the central state of Zacatecas. Mexico argued the USMCA trade pact did not apply, as the issues at the mine had been occurring since before the pact went into effect in 2020.
"This ruling is of utmost importance, as it sets a precedence of not allowing retroactivity in trade agreements," Mexico's economy and labor ministries said in a joint statement. "For Mexico, it is essential to avoid opening the door to this possibilty in both labor and other trade disputes."
Mexico said that while it had found that miner Grupo Mexico had "repeatedly denied workers freedom of association and collective bargaining over 16 years," the issue was being handled by national authorities.
Grupo Mexico has previously said the mine in question resumed operations in 2018 with workers' approval after a striked kicked off in 2007, though the union alleges bargaining was carried out with a group of unauthorized employees.
Mexico also said on Friday that as the USMCA was up for review in 2026, it would look to fix the "asymmetries" in the mechanism under which the U.S. requested the review of the mine.
The treaty, at current, only allows for the U.S. to bring cases of suspected labor rights violations in Mexico, though Mexico is now looking to "employ it equally to defend migrant workers' rights" in the U.S. and Canada.
(Reporting by Kylie Madry Editing by Chris Reese and Diane Craft)
