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What is NAFTA?

NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect in 1994. Under the agricultural chapter, Mexico agreed to eliminate all tariffs on agricultural imports by the year 2008. Only four products still have import-tariffs, corn, beans, sugar and powdered milk, and these will be totally eliminated by 2008. Although the tariffs are still allowed on these four products the Mexican government has not enforced all of the tariffs still in effect, such as those on corn.

Is it truly a level playing field?

As part of the 2002 Farm Bill, the average U.S. farmer stood to collect $20,800 a year in annual subsidies. This compares to $722 for the average Mexican farmer. Mexican government support to the small-farming sector has declined 31.26% since NAFTA came into effect.

Eliminating tariffs has allowed cheaper, and heavily subsidized, U.S. agricultural products into the country. The market value of many products has decreased, corn by 58.3% from 1990 to 2000, and beans by 45%. Yet the cost of food for consumers has drastically increased.

In 1994, prior to NAFTA, Mexico was food self-sufficient. The basic foods consumed by most Mexicans were raised within Mexico. Now Mexico imports a fifth of the corn, a third of the wheat and 90% of the rice and soy consumed in the country from the U.S. Overall it obtains 40% of its food from abroad.

Some results of NAFTA ( this information comes from the Public Citizen's "NAFTA at 10" series):

• Migration: Migration within Mexico and to the United States has doubled since NAFTA took effect. Millions of small scale corn farmers, who were crowded out of the market by the influx of subsidized U.S. corn, have moved to cities or immigated to the U.S. in search of work. In 2002, 600 farmers were forced off their land every day.
• Underemployment: The minimum wage of less than $5 a day does not cover the cost of living. The movement of people from the countryside into the cities and maquiladora factories (factories which produce goods for export) keeps wages down. Promoters of NAFTA asserted that it would attract foreign investers to build factories in Mexico where labor costs were lower, but of the jobs that were created Mexico has already lost a third to cheaper labor markets in Central America and Asia.
• Corn: For hundreds of years Mexicans have cultivated hundreds of varieties of corn adapted to specific areas and microclimates. The introduction of cheap genetically modified corn from the U.S. threatens this diversity, and the culture that supports it. A single strain is more vulnerable to disease, and brings an increasing dependence on pesticides.

--- Figures not specifically attributed above come from Witness For Peace publications.

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