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A group of Mexican farmer leaders and academics believe that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's pledge to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, will be a good opportunity to review areas of the treaty that are not favorable to the sector in Mexico.
Experts say that after 23 years of its implementation, NAFTA, signed by Mexico, the United States and Canada in the early 90s, has helped dismantle Mexico's agricultural production system through neoliberal policies that have left millions of poor farmers without state support and have increased the country's food dependency on aboard, La Jornada reported Tuesday.
Since his presidential campaign, Trump has vowed to force Canada and Mexico to negotiate the trade deal saying it has been detrimental to the manufacturing industry in the United States, sending shocking waves of uncertainty for the already weakened Mexican economy.
[...] In the years that have followed the NAFT signing, the Mexican government has sold itself as a pro-business and lower-cost alternative for U.S. companies and in the process became a manufacturing powerhouse of cars, computers, aerospace technology and televisions.
However, the modernization process also helped dismantle the national agricultural system, which has practically disappeared, according to analysts and producers.
Source: teleSUR
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 30 2016, @08:25PM
Very few people in the US were enriched by NAFTA.
Even fewer people in Mexico had their lives improved by NAFTA.
In comparison, I think slightly more people in Canada may have benefitted from NAFTA - but the numbers are still exceedingly small.
And where do you pull these hand-waving numbers out of? Right. If no one benefited, like you believe, then where did 50% increased trade with Canada come from? Since NAFTA, trade between US and Canada has increased faster than GDP.
Just last year, bought a pool in Minnesota and hauled it up to Canada. Paid tax on the border but no duty, because NAFTA. Companies can exist north and south of the border and haul intermediaries between the two without paying bullshit duties.
If Trump wants to renegotiate it, sure, add environmental protection requirements to it, add worker rights requirements (like CETA did), add comparable wage requirements, etc.. but I suspect Trump is not exactly going to be positive and progressive like that. He'll just scrap it and screw everyone over.
http://www.cfr.org/trade/naftas-economic-impact/p15790 [cfr.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday December 30 2016, @10:40PM
Where do I pull numbers from?
Fifty million or more illegal aliens flooding into the United States, because their family lands have been stolen out from under them. (That was key to NAFTA, Mexico had to make it legal for foreigners to own land in Mexico.)
Seventy or more million US citizens out of work because of NAFTA and similar trade agreements.
In the late 80's early 90's, I drove truck, back and forth across the US-Canadian border. No duties. No tarrifs. I worked for a Canadian company, with operations in the US and Canada. The stuff I hauled went from plant to plant, one side of the border or the other. We almost never carried finished goods across the border, because that was assessed by Customs, but our partly finished products flowed freely each way. The trade has always been there - you are merely telling me that you are in on part of the trade now.
And, you WILL notice that I said Canada came out better in this deal that either Mexico or the US. Mexico bleeds people that they can't support, the US bleeds jobs, and Canada just keeps Canucking along. Not a bad deal for Canada, ehh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 31 2016, @01:34AM
Fifty million or more illegal aliens flooding into the United States
Lol. That number? Straight outta your ass. As if illegal immigrants have anything to do with NAFTA. They are illegal for fuck's sake, they don't need laws to immigrate illegally. If anything, NAFTA reduced the number of illegal immigrants because they could get jobs in Mexico doing work that was previously done in the US.
Seventy or more million US citizens out of work
Did you just goatse.cx yourself? Because your asshole must be gaping in order to pull a number that big out of it.
70 million people is nearly half the entire labor force. [bls.gov]
Your bullshit does not pass the laugh test.