Toddsterpatriot:
Did we produce more farm products in 2004 than in 1994? Did we just export a record amount of ag products last year?
It gets tiresome refuting the same DNC/AFL-CIO/E.P.I./Public Citizen misinformation all the time. Here it is again:
To understand how much NAFTA has benefited U.S. exporters, compare our export performance to Canada and Mexico since 1994 with our performance to the rest of the world. The difference is startling. Between 1994 and 2005, global U.S. agricultural exports have increased from $46.2 billion to a projected $60.5 billion, a total gain of $14.3 billion. During the same period, exports to Canada and Mexico increased from $9.5 billion to a projected level of $19 billion in 2005, a gain of $9.5 billion. This means that our NAFTA partners – Canada and Mexico – now account for 31 percent of overall U.S. agricultural exports and two-thirds of the worldwide increase in U.S. exports since 1994. Of that $9.5 billion increase, $5 billion was to Canada and $4.5 billion to Mexico. As a result, in 2005, they will be our two largest export markets in the world and, along with China, our fastest growing markets since 1994 - by a wide margin.
Myths Regarding the Impact of NAFTA on U.S. Agricultural Trade
If your posting by the fas.usda are correct, why have farm subsidies increase over 10% since its inception? On other "non-union" web sites they specifically cite the USDA statistics and say that the USDA does not give the whole picture. We have become a net importer of agricultural products now. While our exports to China may have increased by 9.5 billion dollars, our net agricultural imports from other nations have increased from 32 billion in 1996 to 46 billion in 2003. That would mean a 14 billion dollar loss of trade to offset our 9.5 billion increase you cited; and that was since 2003.
You blythly quote the fas.usda as if it was the gospel and ignore the plight of the others who were hurt by this legislation. NAFTA was not well thought out and CAFTA will be more of the same. We have run pell-mell into an idiotic competition with the European union to create some sort of "American Continental trading union" with tremendous upheaval to industries, our borders, and our sovereignty. A lot of people may be getting rich with NAFTA, GATT, and now CAFTA but it won't be you or me.