• The NAALC
• Objectives, Obligations and Principles
• Full Text of the Agreement
• ECEs and Arbitral Panels
• Four Year Review
• Introduction: Process for the Review
• Part One: Conclusions of the Council
• Part Two: Highlights of Consultation Process
• Part Three: Overview of Operations
• Annex 1: Report of the Independent Advisory Committee on the Operation and Effectiveness of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation
• Annex 2: Report of the Mexican National Advisory Committee on the First Four Years of the Operation of the NAALC
• Annex 3: Report of the United States National Advisory Committee Reviewing the First Four Years of the Operation of the NAALC
• Introduction
• Section I: Objectives and Obligations Established by the NAALC
• Section II: Objectives and Obligations Under the NAALC as Benchmarks for Assessing Effective Implementation
• Section III: Structures and Activities Established by the NAALC to Accomplish its Objectives
• Section IV: Cooperative Activities, Research, and Public Information and Education
• Section V: Interpretation, Application, and Enforcement
• Section VI: General Observations
• Section VII: Recommendations
• Appendix A: NAO-Conducted Cooperative Activites
• Appendix B: Status of Submissions Under the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (April 10, 1998)
• Footnotes
• Annex 4: Mexican Survey
• Annex 5: Public Comments
• Annex 6: Bibliography
• ILO Conventions Ratified by NAALC Countries

The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) entered into force on January 1, 1994,¹ simultaneously with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)². The NAALC established the Commission for Labor Cooperation,³ and its governing body, the ministerial council, composed of the labor ministers from the three Parties,⁴ Canada, Mexico, and the U.S.⁵ Among other responsibilities, the NAALC charged the Council to "oversee the implementation, and develop recommendations on the further elaboration of this Agreement, and, to this end, the Council shall, within four years after the date of entry into force of this Agreement, review its operations and effectiveness in the light of experience."⁶

In fulfillment of that mandate, the Council devised a NAALC review process, one element of which obligated "[e]ach Party [to] request comments on the operation and effectiveness of the NAALC from their National . . . Advisory Committees" to be transmitted to the NAALC Secretariat.⁷ Accordingly, the U.S. National Administrative Office (NAO) requested that the U.S. National Advisory Committee prepare such a report. This report will review the operation and effectiveness of the NAALC from its inception to the present, and will provide the views and recommendations of the U.S. National Advisory Committee regarding possibilities for improving implementation of the NAALC, and on its further elaboration.