NAFTA harming Mexico corn industry
Larry Matlack,Agweek
Published: 05/04/2009

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The news that surrounded President Obama’s recent visit to Mexico regarding Mexican corn farmers may have come as a surprise to some, but not to those who have followed the issue since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Several interviews were broadcast on U.S. television news services that highlighted the fact that Mexican farmers cannot compete with subsidized corn imported from the U.S. These farmers were forced to move into makeshift dwellings in the shadows of Mexico City. As advocates for family farmers, in the U.S. and abroad, the American Agriculture Movement has worked to make this catastrophe known and has worked with Congress in an attempt to correct the injustice for many years.

NAFTA eliminated Mexican import restrictions on U.S. corn. Soon after the ratification of NAFTA, Freedom to Farm eliminated the floor price mechanism for U.S. corn. Not long after that, Washington policymakers decided not to segregate or label genetically modified corn and we lost our corn export markets to the European Union, Japan and South Korea. The net result was a large volume of cheap U.S. corn dumped onto the Mexican farmers’ markets. This, in turn, displaced thousands, possibly millions, of Mexican farmers, causing many to illegally cross into the United States to find work to support their families.

Supporting corn prices at the market with a fair loan rate would be a much better option than our current system of paying subsidies that allowed cheap corn to steal the livelihoods of Mexican farmers and gave the American taxpayer a bill for corn subsidies and illegal immigration. Even if we do not care about the monetary cost, the moral shame is ours to bear.

This is just another example of the indirect and unintended consequences of U.S. farm and trade policy. But more important, this atrocity is another example of the reason all family farmers need and deserve a fair price for the fruits of their labor, not taxpayer subsidies.

We may not be able to overturn NAFTA or put the GMO genie back into the bottle, but we can re-establish fair prices for U.S. famers with better farm policy and, in turn, help the farmers of Mexico and the world.

Editor’s Note: Matlack is president of the American Agriculture Movement.

http://www.agweek.com/articles/?id=3748 ... erty_id=41

American Agricultural Movement
http://www.aaminc.org/