• 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 NAC makes the following recommendations:

1. That the Commission work with the NAOs and the Secretariat to develop a more systematic approach to determining topic and content of cooperative activities and to ensuring that the balance of emphasis among topics in any given period accurately reflects the Commission's establishment of priorities.
   
2. As part of transparency, public information and education about the NAALC and the Commission's activities thereunder, the NAC urges further development and use of Commission, Secretariat and NAO websites and the posting at each website as appropriate, for public downloading, of every document formally generated by the activities of each organ, including in particular:
   1. all duly adopted rules and regulations governing proceedings pursuant to the NAALC;
      
   2. all formal reports generated in proceedings before the NAOs, the Secretariat, an ECE, an Arbitral Panel, and experts appointed pursuant to provisions of the NAALC;
      
   3. as volume and technology permit, public transcripts of hearings and seminars conducted pursuant to the NAALC;
      
   4. as volume and technology permit, the text of all public submissions deemed to have sufficient substance by the NAO to support cooperative consultations.
3. The Council should expand the exercise of its power to "promote the collection and publication of comparable data on enforcement, labor standards and labor market indicators" under Article 10(1)(h), in a manner which will:
   
   1. promote the ability of the Parties and interested private actors to evaluate effective enforcement by each country of its own labor laws;
      
   2. promote the ability of the Parties and interested private actors to compare enforcement effectiveness within a given Party across time;
      
   3. promote the ability of the Parties and interested private actors to measure the extent to which each Party's modifications of their occupational safety and health, child labor, and minimum labor standards fairly can be characterized as "improving" over time;
   4. otherwise enhance the ability of the Commission and public and private actors within the Parties to monitor fulfillment in each Party of the NAALC's stated objectives and Parties' obligations. While, in some instances, it may be appropriate to encourage one or more Parties, or state(s) or province(s) within one or more Parties, to expand record-keeping obligations of private actors, the NAC's primary focus here is on mutually comparable and compatible government record keeping as to the details of labor law enforcement, standard setting, legislative action, regulatory processes and other activities pertaining to fulfillment of each of the NAALC obligations.
4. The NAOs should strive to assume a more proactive role in the application and enforcement of the Agreement and in its eventual elaboration, through expanded use of the NAOs' power of initiative in cooperative consultations and evaluations, as to appropriate matters.
5. The Commission, in its own processes for periodic review of implementation and potential further elaboration of the NAALC, should take account of such benchmarks for comparison as:
   
   1. the effectiveness of the NAALC and implementation thereof in furthering its stated goals and objectives identified in the Preamble, Part One, and Annex 1 of the Agreement;
      
   2. the effectiveness of the NAALC and implementation thereof in ensuring each Party's fulfillment of its obligations defined in Part Two;
      
   3. the effectiveness of the Commission as a whole, the Council, the Secretariat and NAOs in performing their roles and functions prescribed in Parts Three through Five of the Agreement and the effectiveness of the entirety of their operations in fostering fulfillment by the Parties of their Part Two obligations.
   In particular, the NAC believes it essential that due regard be paid not only to the specifics of matters such as conduct of cooperative activities and submission-related proceedings, but to broader matters, such as to the extent to which present NAALC structure and instrumentalities are succeeding as suitable means to fulfill the stated policy objectives of the Agreement.
6. The NAOs, the Secretariat, and the Commission must continue to be adequately funded to fulfill their roles and responsibilities pursuant to the NAALC, bearing in mind the likelihood that these functions will increase in depth and scope as experience in administering the Agreement accumulates.
7. The NAC recommends that the NAALC be applied to permit ECE and arbitral level consideration of matters arising under Part Two of the Agreement.