PERSPECTIVE LABOUR AND SOCIAL JUSTICE THE USMCA BETWEEN THE US AND MEXICO A Step Towards More Sustainable Trade? Graciela Bensusán Areous and Laura Patricia Briseño Fabián March 2022 Foreign trade and especially exports to the US are essential for Mexico. For this reason, Mexico signed the USMCA, despite the conditions im­posed. Amongst these condi­tions is a differential treatment in labour regulation with an enforcement mechanism of economic and trade sanctions. The negotiations on labour issues In the USMCA were facilitated by a domestic poli­tical change in Mexico. They led to a convergence of inter­ests with Mexico´s trading partners but did not prevent unequal treatment. The provisions on freedom of association and collective bargaining only apply to Me­xico. They are reflected by the reforms in the Federal Labour Law of 2019 and they initiate a structural transfor­mation of the former labour model’s deficits.