Good afternoon, Chair and members of the standing committee. I am Siobhán Vipond, and I'm the executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

The CLC is Canada's largest labour body and speaks on issues of national importance for three million unionized workers in every sector across the country. We welcome the opportunity to provide input on the 2026 CUSMA review.

The impact of CUSMA on Canadian workers cannot be overstated, and the importance of the 2026 CUSMA review cannot be overstated either. The review is one of the key priorities for Canada's unions.

CUSMA came into force on July 1, 2020, and no one could have anticipated the number and magnitude of global and domestic disruptions since 2020 affecting trade. The review will take place in potentially different political configurations, given that all three countries have federal elections before 2026.

Canada's enduring goal for the review must be strategic rather than perfunctory. Canada must align with the U.S.'s worker-centred trade approach that is beneficial for workers, powered by workers and directly engages unions from the start. A worker-centred approach will deliver good-paying jobs by increasing the growth of unions and helping strengthen obligations and implementation of CUSMA in labour, environment and inclusive trade chapters. For instance, strong climate change commitments and obligations must be added to the environment chapter at the review, given the significant impact on jobs.

Chair, our recommendations for the review engagement are as follows.

As part of a worker-centred trade approach, the government must actively engage with the CLC on a par with the current level of engagement in the U.S. between government and the AFL-CIO. The government should establish a tripartite CUSMA review task force of government, unions and businesses to identify, review and make recommendations on priority issues for Canada, and the government must conduct meaningful consultations with unions and other civil society stakeholders.

In the review, the government should elevate the worker-centred approach through the robust implementation of obligations in the labour chapter, which includes improving and expanding the application of the rapid response mechanism; advancing full compliance to prohibit the importation of goods produced by forced labour; addressing violence against workers exercising their labour rights; enforcing obligations regarding discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation and gender identity; and ensuring more labour rights and protections for migrant workers.

We wish to underscore that Canada is out of step with the U.S. in three key areas: a worker-centred trade approach, the utilization of the RRM—the rapid response mechanism—and a prohibition on the importation of goods produced by forced labour. The CLC urges the government to close these gaps in the review in order to deliver more benefits for Canadian workers and communities.

The agenda for the review is shaping up, with the U.S. and Mexico signalling the issues they intend to bring to the table. Mexico wants the rapid response mechanism to apply to the U.S. and Canada, which is not the case now. The U.S. plans to raise their concern with Canada's digital service tax and the long-standing tensions with supply management of dairy. The U.S. may also table the perennial trade irritants of softwood lumber and automotive rules of origin.

The threat of China's very aggressive moves to gain EV market share globally and in North America is anticipated to be prominently featured in the renewal discussions. In May, the U.S. imposed massive tariff increases on Chinese goods, including 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, and substantial increases for lithium-ion EV batteries and semiconductors. Canada is contemplating whether it will follow suit. There are also fears that Chinese investments in Mexico EV manufacturing may be coming, and CUSMA may be used to enable exports to the U.S. and Canada, circumventing any direct tariff measures in place. The CLC agrees with the need to protect EV jobs and manufacturing against Chinese exports to North America and looks to the CUSMA review to shore up protections.

Canada's unions have two opportunities to propose worker-centred propositions to improve labour rights and obligations in CUSMA. The first is the upcoming five-year review of the implementation and operation of the CUSMA labour chapter in 2025, and the second is the 2026 CUSMA review, where labour can advocate for workers in the other chapters.

The CLC will be there, fighting for Canadian workers every step of the way.

Thank you.