Mexico faces free trade anxiety

Ontario Farmer Daily: Mexico faces free trade anxiety

Free trade with the United States is raising fresh fears among Mexico’s farmers, the Washington Post reports.

The poultry industry is the latest to sound the alarm bells over a flood of American products coming into the country when the final provisions of the pact go into effect over the next two years. It will open Mexico up to unlimited imports.

Farmers in the article say they can't compete with U.S. poultry raised on heavily subsidized corn. They say it will push many of them out of work, resulting in even more poor Mexican peasants seeking work – legally or illegally – north of the border.

That's no the way the North American Free Trade Agreement was intended to work. Theoretically it was to create more jobs and wealth in Mexico, reducing the emigration pressure. But, the article adds, that in the years following the deal much of Mexico's countryside has been overwhelmed by crops from the U.S., forcing many peasants off the land.