[1rudeboy]

Mexican farmers or peasants before free trade made modest living by selling their products while being protected by tariffs. Now they cannot compete with industrial agrobusiness.

While I am touched by your concern for Mexican peasants, please consider that, according to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative:

In 1993, before NAFTA, American exporters who wanted to sell to Mexico faced trade barriers of about 10 percent, nearly five times the 2 percent rate that the United States. imposed on Mexican goods. With NAFTA, Mexico's average tariff has already fallen to about 2 percent, creating more export opportunities for American farmers.

--Two-way trade between the United States and Mexico increased more than 55 percent since 1994, reaching more than $11.6 billion.

--Record levels of exports to Mexico in 2000 include red meats, processed fruits and vegetables, poultry meat, snack foods, fresh fruits, feeds and fodder and rice. This broad cross section of commodities suggests the benefits of the NAFTA are widely distributed across United States agriculture.

--U.S. pork producers credit NAFTA with their gains in market share in Mexico for pork products, which increased 130 percent between 1994 and 2000.

From 1993-2000:

--U.S. soybean volume exports doubled to Mexico.

--U.S. beef and veal volume exports increased nearly five-fold to Mexico.

--U.S. corn volume exports increased eighteen-fold to Mexico. Mexico chose to expedite its market openings for corn under NAFTA, to provide lower cost food to its increasingly urban population and to ensure it had sufficient animal feed.

[eskimo]

--Two-way trade between the United States and Mexico increased more than 55 percent since 1994, reaching more than $11.6 billion

How much went each way?

[A. Pole]

While I am touched by your concern for Mexican peasants [...] Record levels of exports to Mexico in 2000 include red meats, processed fruits and vegetables, poultry meat, snack foods, fresh fruits, feeds and fodder and rice [...]U.S. corn volume exports increased eighteen-fold to Mexico. Mexico chose to expedite its market openings for corn under NAFTA

You illustrate my point well. This huge increase of imports replaces the domestic Mexican productions which was very "inefficient" ie it provide subsistence for the millions of farmers/peasants. It was the fundation of their life for countless generations (many of them being in business before Columbus!).

Now they are made redundant - the flood the cities and part of this huge human wave is crossing the US southern border. According to the free market ideology it is a great thing - it improves the bottom line of transnational agrobusiness, it lower consumer prices a little and provides a lot of cheap labor in cities. The destruction, dislocation, hidden costs and destabilization are not calculated by the freetraders since their calculation formulas are too primitive to take into account more than couple items.

You think that it is noble and pious on you side to disregard lowly Mexican peasants or US taxpayers/woekers or the future of both countries so long as the false dogmas of free market cult are adhered to.

[BIGLOOK]

Noted; point well made.

[SwankyC]

great! We can be an agricultural economy again.

[ninenot]

Good.

We took care of Cargill, ADM, and all the other corporate farmers. That's about, oh, 2% of the actual VOTERS in the USA.