USTR Cites Chinese Maquiladora under USMCA Labor

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced Monday that the United States has asked Mexico to review whether workers at the Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico facility in San Luis Potosiare being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.  

The request, which was made in response to a petition, marks the fifteenth time the United States has formally invoked the Rapid Response Labor Mechanism (RRM) in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico performs die casting and machining of aluminum parts for "Tier One" suppliers such as Magna, Cummins, and Robert Bosch, as well as General Motors and BMW. The plant opened in June of 2023 and employs 300 workers.   Parent company Ningbo Asiaway Automotive Components Co.,Ltd is a privately held company based in Ningbo, an industrial hub near Shanghai.

On September 20, 2023 an RRM petition was filed, alleging that Asiaway dismissed a worker in retaliation for undertaking union organizing activity.  As a result, the United States Trade Representative has submitted a request to Mexico that Mexico review whether workers at the Asiaway Automotive Components Mexico facility are being denied the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.  Mexico has ten days to agree to conduct a review and, if it agrees, 45 days from today to complete the review. 

“Freedom of association and collective bargaining are fundamental cornerstones of the USMCA and Mexico’s labor reform.  Employers can no longer choose the unions with whom they work, and must respect workers’ rights to select and join the union of their choice,” said Ambassador Katherine Tai.”

The word Maquiladoras comes from colonial Mexico, where millers charged a “maquila” for processing other people’s grain. Today the same term is used to describe companies that process (assemble and/or transform in some way) components imported into Mexico which are, in turn, exported – usually to the United States.

A copy of the request for review can be found here.  A copy of the letter to the Secretary of the Treasury can be found here.   Information about previous requests can be found here.