On Thursday, President Claudia Sheinbaum presented an initiative to the Senate of the Republic with a draft decree to reform three laws and create the Labor Certificate for Agricultural Exports.

Sheinbaum proposes reforming the Organic Law of the Federal Public Administration, the Foreign Trade Law, and the Federal Labor Law.

Labor Certificate for Agricultural Exports

Although the certificate is designed for the agricultural sector, the reform of the Foreign Trade Law would allow for the restriction of exports of any goods when there are labor or environmental violations, according to business sources.

This could turn foreign trade into a mechanism for enforcing labor compliance across the entire economy.

Labor impact

At the end of July 2025, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) reported a record 23,591,691 formal jobs affiliated with it. However, in the agricultural sector, during the same period, the employed population in this activity amounted to 2.78 million people, of whom more than 83% were in informal conditions, without access to social security or basic benefits.

Sheinbaum argued that while agribusiness is consolidating its position as a driver of foreign exchange and employment, decent conditions must be guaranteed for agricultural workers, as the benefits of international trade are not generated solely at the point of export, but throughout the entire value chain: from small producers to packing and marketing companies.

Companies seeking to export agricultural products must first demonstrate compliance with labor rights, social security, and decent working conditions. To obtain the corresponding certificate, exporters will have to document this compliance through a formal, verifiable, and auditable process.

Workers

In this context, exporters participate in the entire production process and are the ones who reap the greatest benefits from the work carried out by workers. For this reason, the proposed scheme seeks to recognize their shared responsibility for the conditions under which production takes place.

According to Claudia Sheinbaum, recognizing this shared responsibility within a mechanism that promotes formal employment and environmental protection does not imply placing an undue burden on exporters. On the contrary, it seeks to strengthen compliance with labor obligations.

Furthermore, the proposal argues that this approach will allow the benefits derived from trade liberalization to be reflected in better living conditions for people working in the countryside. In this way, export activity is linked to verifiable labor and environmental standards.