U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09), joined by House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MA-01), and fellow Ways and Means members Jimmy Panetta (D-CA-20), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA-34), and Dan Kildee (D-MI-05), traveled to Mexico and today met with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexican government officials, and local workers to discuss ongoing talks between the United States, Mexico, and Canada to ratify changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

“This quick trip was a success. President López Obrador was a gracious host. Further discussions can only help working class Americans and Mexicans impacted by changes to NAFTA,” said Rep. Pascrell, a senior member of the Trade Subcommittee. “As negotiations over changes to NAFTA heat up between the United States and our neighbors, it is critical we do everything possible to protect worker standards.

“I was very clear and emphatic to President López Obrador that protecting the Mexican and American workers stands foremost in the mind of millions of Americans watching the negotiations between our nations. I will continue to closely monitor the Mexico’s budget process to ensure they are seriously investing in implementation of their new labor laws. We must know that Mexico is serious about beginning a new chapter before we rush to judgement on a new agreement. We’ll have a suitable agreement only when the hard terms match that aspiration.”

Rep. Pascrell has been a leader in Congress on trade issues. Pascrell has been deeply involved in the NAFTA renegotiations, traveling to talks in both Montreal and Mexico City in 2018 and working with the U.S. Trade Representative to ensure the perspectives of American workers and businesses are heard and accounted for in any agreement.

Pascrell has repeatedly emphasized that any new NAFTA agreement must contain strong enforceable labor provisions that can be implemented and then monitored meaningfully, environmental standards that can lift all boats and block companies from dumping  in waterways or polluting the air, and reforms to the investment chapter of the agreement to ensure public welfare measures and the rights of sovereign governments would not be unfairly undermined by international tribunals, among other areas.