Manuel-Perez-Rocha: NAFTA Proving to Be an Engine of Poverty in Mexico Manuel-Perez-Rocha - baxterbulletin.com
go to original December 30, 2013

Twenty years after it took effect, NAFTA has failed the vast majority of Mexicans.

Of course, hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs have vanished since automotive and tech companies moved their production across the border in search of much lower wages.

This was supposed to boost employment in Mexico. Instead, NAFTA has become an engine of poverty in the country, forcing millions of Mexicans to migrate to the United States in search of jobs.

Why?

Under NAFTA, cheap subsidized corn from the United States flooded Mexico, making it impossible for millions of Mexican farmers to compete. Government support previously given to small farmers was withdrawn and directed to big agricultural exporting corporations instead.

“Before NAFTA, Mexico was a developing country,” says Victor Suarez, who leads an association of Mexican small farmers. “But now it’s an underdeveloping country, with 70 percent of people in rural areas and 85 percent of the indigenous population living in poverty.”

Still, even with hard times in the countryside, the trade deal’s architects promised that Mexico would industrialize. That transformation would, according to the promises that propelled NAFTA two decades ago, generate job growth.

Unfortunately, most factories that opened in Mexico are merely assembly plants, not production sites.

Read the rest at baxterbulletin.com

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!