NAFTA
NAFTA stands for North American Free Trade Agreement, which took effect in 1994. It was supposed to make it easier for people in the United States, Mexico and Canada to do business with each other.
NAFTA was supposed to lower prices for consumers and create jobs for every country. In fact, it destroyed good-paying jobs and created a flood of desperate, unemployed refugees from the south into our country.
Marcelo Suarez-Orozco is co-director of immigration studies at New York University. He reports that NAFTA has had a very uneven effect in terms of which sectors of the Mexican economy have benefited and which sectors have been hurt.
The agriculture sector of Mexico’s economy has been hardest hit and the current migration from Mexico north is the largest movement of people in that country’s history. Jobs that once served as a safety net for the Mexican society, have been extremely vulnerable to the free trade agreement.
For 100 years, Mexican farmers had ranches, where they grew tomatoes and sold them locally. NAFTA promotes tomatoes from the United States, which are subsidized by the American taxpayers. Consequently, the Mexican farmer can’t sell his tomato to make money.
Dr. Suarez-Orozco says that Mexico built an entire civilization out of corn, but today they can’t produce enough corn to feed their population. Since, they can’t compete with the subsidized corn that comes from the United States, they go to the city or America in search of work and the farms dry out.
This is part of a global dynamic. The insertion of Mexico into global economy by NAFTA, is similar to what is going on in every region of the world. In India, roughly 30 villagers per minute arrive in their cities, because of the insertion of India into the global system of production.
NAFTA was supposed to lower prices for consumers and create jobs for every country. In fact, it destroyed good-paying jobs and created a flood of desperate, unemployed refugees from the south into our country.
Marcelo Suarez-Orozco is co-director of immigration studies at New York University. He reports that NAFTA has had a very uneven effect in terms of which sectors of the Mexican economy have benefited and which sectors have been hurt.
The agriculture sector of Mexico’s economy has been hardest hit and the current migration from Mexico north is the largest movement of people in that country’s history. Jobs that once served as a safety net for the Mexican society, have been extremely vulnerable to the free trade agreement.
For 100 years, Mexican farmers had ranches, where they grew tomatoes and sold them locally. NAFTA promotes tomatoes from the United States, which are subsidized by the American taxpayers. Consequently, the Mexican farmer can’t sell his tomato to make money.
Dr. Suarez-Orozco says that Mexico built an entire civilization out of corn, but today they can’t produce enough corn to feed their population. Since, they can’t compete with the subsidized corn that comes from the United States, they go to the city or America in search of work and the farms dry out.
This is part of a global dynamic. The insertion of Mexico into global economy by NAFTA, is similar to what is going on in every region of the world. In India, roughly 30 villagers per minute arrive in their cities, because of the insertion of India into the global system of production.
posted by Jim O'Leary | 1:04 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home