Mexico, US, Canada to Strengthen the Fight Against Forced Labor
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Mexico, US, Canada to Strengthen the Fight Against Forced Labor

Photo by:   Elevate, Unsplash
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By MBN Staff | MBN staff - Thu, 05/20/2021 - 22:34

On May 17-18, Mexico’s Minister of Economy of Mexico Tatiana Clouthier, Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion and International Trade Mary Ng and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai held talks on the progress of the new USMCA trade agreement. At the meeting, representatives of the three countries discussed actions and “shared obligations” to enforce the agreement’s ban on the importation of goods produced by forced labor. 

“The USMCA commits us to a robust and inclusive North American economy that serves as a model globally for competitiveness while prioritizing the interests of workers and underserved communities. The Parties recognize that trade policies should foster broad-based and equitable growth, spur innovation, protect our shared environment and have a positive impact on people from all walks of life. To accomplish this, Canada, the US and Mexico recommit to fully implementing, enforcing and fulfilling the Agreement’s terms and high standards throughout the life of the USMCA,” they said in a joint statement.

The FTC also highlighted that, despite the pandemic, the committees established by USMCA have been meeting virtually since its entry into force, including the Committees on Origin and Origin Procedures, Textiles and Apparel Trade Matters, Trade Facilitation, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Transportation Services, Financial Services, Intellectual Property Rights, State-Owned Enterprises and Designated Monopolies, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) Issues, Competitiveness and Good Regulatory Practices.

More news below:

  • If there is one job that is most often undervalued, it is that of cleaning professionals. According to the International Cleaning Association in Mexico, there are more than 3,000 cleaning service companies but 80 percent of the industry dedicated to cleaning and hygiene is made up of informal companies. Melina Cruz, CEO and Co-Founder of Homely, an on-demand marketplace to match cleaners and users, shares this information in her first article written for MBN. “Many cleaning professionals are often ignored or undermined, regardless of whether these activities are carried out in homes, offices or businesses, even though they are performing tasks that nobody wants to do, that we all demand and from which we all benefit,” she explains. Read here the full article where Cruz writes about how Homely is working to provide dignified treatment, wages and legal benefits to all cleaning professionals in Mexico.

 

  • In Mexico City, 43.2 percent of the population received an income lower than the cost of the basic food basket during 1Q2021, revealed figures from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (CONEVAL). This meant an increase of 14.9 percentage points compared to the 28.3 percent reported for the same period in 2020. This made the country's capital the state with the greatest increase in the percentage of people whose income is below the price of the basic food basket.

 

  • Weekly jobless claims in the US fell last week to 444,000, compared with 478,000 the previous week, said the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) on Thursday. According to the BLS, there were 3.75 million people receiving this benefit in the week ending May 8, compared to 3.64 million in the previous week.
Photo by:   Elevate, Unsplash

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