[ARA]

how are they driving them out... I don't doubt you just don't know what you are referencing..

[A. Pole]

how are they driving them out...

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.

I don't doubt you just don't know what you are referencing..

It is impressive how little doubts if any the freetraders have.

[meadsjn]

how are they driving them out... I don't doubt you just don't know what you are referencing..

NAFTA in Mexico: Lessons for a Central American Free Trade Agreement

{ snip }
NAFTA and Labor in Mexico

• Blows to the rural agricultural sector under liberalization have not necessarily been offset by increased employment in urban areas. Under NAFTA, Mexico has seen a dramatic expansion of maquiladoras, with these plants contributing to 35% of all new manufacturing employment between 1995 and 1999. However, jobs were lost during the same period, as factories that had previously supplied inputs to exporters were replaced by foreign suppliers. On balance, employment in the manufacturing sector fell 9.4% between 1993 and 2000, as the loss in supply-chain jobs overtook growth in the maquiladora industry.⁵
• Even in sectors that experienced job growth under NAFTA, wages and purchasing power fell. According to a report issued by the office of Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo in 2000, incomes of salaried workers in Mexico fell by 25% between 1993 and 1998. While some of this decline can be attributed to the peso crisis Mexico experienced in 1995, even wages in maquiladoras—a rapidly expanding sector of the economy—fell by 21% during this period. Moreover, the purchasing power of the minimum wage fell by 17.9% through 1999.⁶