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MEXICO: FARMERS BRACE FOR FLOOD OF U.S. MAIZE AND BEAN IMPORTS(English IPS News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) MEXICO CITY, Mexico, Dec. 19, 2007 (IPS/GIN) -- U.S.-grown maize, beans, powdered milk and sugar are set to flood the Mexican market on Jan. 1, completing a process of market liberalization that began 14 years ago. "The claws of free trade will grab us by the throat in 2008 and strangle us, and the government is doing nothing about it," said Mariano Snchez, a bean grower from a medium-sized farm near Mexico City. "It just said it has to fulfill its pledge, but that will be at the expense of poor farmers who can't compete." The freeing up of Mexico's agricultural markets has been happening gradually since 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States came into effect. The agreement has forced Mexico's impoverished rural sector to compete with the U.S., a powerful and heavily subsidized foreign rival. The date set for the final stage of this process was 2008. It was expected that by then Mexico would be able to cope with the removal of quotas and tariffs for imported maize and beans, the staple foods of most people in this country. However, with just a few days to go before the last trade barriers are dismantled, there is obvious asymmetry among the markets. There is particular asymmetry between the markets of Mexico and the United States, with which Mexico does 90 percent of its trade. Maize originated in Mexico, which produces 19 million metric tons of it a year, compared to the 300 million metric tons a year grown in the United States. For a Mexican farmer, the cost of growing a hectare of maize is 300 times higher and the yield is 3.5 times lower than for a farmer in the U.S., according to the nongovernmental National Campesino Federation. But every farmer in the U.S. is subsidized to the tune of an average $20,000 a year, while in Mexico government subsidies are no more than an annual $770 per farmer, the federation said. In the U.S., 32 million hectares are devoted to maize, which is used for human food and animal feed, as well as to produce ethanol, a biofuel. In Mexico maize is grown on 8.5 million hectares. NAFTA is not so much a free trade treaty as an agreement to eliminate tariff barriers. Dismantling domestic subsidies is an issue that continues to be negotiated at the World Trade Organization, where talks are blocked because of the refusal of rich nations to stop subsidizing their farmers. "The farming sector in Mexico was never ready for NAFTA and is still not ready, in spite of all the support the authorities say they have given," said Snchez, who produces beans on 15 hectares of land and sells them to local markets. He said he has steady buyers but fears he will lose them if lower-priced imported beans become available. Roughly 20 million people out of a total Mexican population of 109 million live in the countryside, and 75 percent of them are poor. Barely one-third of agricultural laborers have employment benefits, and there is constant migration of the work force toward Mexican cities and the United States. Of the country's 31 million hectares of cultivated land, less than 1 million produce crops for export. The rest is used to grow food largely for subsistence, with the surplus being sold on the domestic market. Even so, more than 50 percent of the cucumber and 90 percent of the lemons and mangoes that are consumed in the U.S. come from Mexico. One out of six watermelons, one-quarter of melons and asparagus and one-third of the tomatoes bought by consumers in the U.S. are also from Mexico, according to government figures. About 50 campesino organizations and groups of activists opposed to free trade have joined forces in the National Campaign in Defense of Food Sovereignty and the Revitalization of Rural Mexico under the slogan "Sin maz no hay pas, sin frijol tampoco." A rough translation of the slogan is "No maize means no Mexico, and so does no beans." The groups have carried out a number of actions aimed at stopping the opening of the market for these essential agricultural products, so far without success. More than 1,100 agricultural products from the U.S. and Canada can already be imported duty-free into Mexico, and the same is true of the vast majority of Mexican products sold to the U.S. and Canada. Nearly all quotas and tariffs have been removed. All that remain are the protective barriers for the most sensitive products -- maize, beans, powdered milk and sugar -- which were left until last. The government of conservative President Felipe Caldern said Jan. 1 will not in any way be a dire day for Mexico. Mexico already imports increasing amounts of maize and beans from the U.S., because it ceased to be self-sufficient in both products almost a decade ago. Therefore the regional open market is already a fact, some observers say. The elimination of Mexico's tariff barriers for maize is due to occur at a time when there is high international demand and high world prices for the commodity. Experts say Mexicans will have no difficulty selling their maize, locally or for export. Mexico produces an annual surplus of 200,000 metric tons of sugar, and the imminent change in trade rules is not expected to have a major impact on this sector. The U.S. imports sugar and could buy it from Mexico, said governing National Action Party lawmaker Francisco Domnguez, an agricultural expert. The local dairy industry, however, cannot fully satisfy local demand and is at a technological disadvantage compared to producers in the U.S., so it could face stiff competition. Marco Ramos, an agricultural researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said all of Mexico's rural problems should not be blamed "on NAFTA and free trade." "That's an overly simplistic view that leaves out hard data indicating that failure in the rural sector is due to several causes," he said. A study published in 2005 by Braulio Serna of the local office of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean said NAFTA has not had a quantitatively significant impact on Mexico's rural sector. Analyses claiming that opening the market has been the determining factor in Mexican agricultural performance are biased, Serna said, adding that the problems of the rural sector, poverty and migration are more directly linked to misguided public policies, global and national economic crises, climatic factors, low levels of technical training among farmers and the low international commodity prices seen until a few years ago. Government support for the Mexican countryside has increased in the past few years and comprises subsidies, technical support, preferential prices and investment in rural infrastructure. This year, government spending amounted to some $16 billion, $1.5 billion more than in 2006. In 2008 funding for rural areas is expected to reach $19 billion. However, most of the rural areas remain in poverty and overall production has not improved, although there are some successful export sectors. The backing given by the Mexican state to its farmers does not match the $22 billion that the U.S. gives its producers in direct subsidies alone, without taking into account the substantial additional aid they receive for marketing, technology and infrastructure. NAFTA opponents organizing the National Campaign in Defense of Food Sovereignty have said that, starting in January, "campesinos will have to defend themselves on their own against U.S. products which are subsidized at a level 30 times higher than the average amounts granted by the Mexican government." "The ingenuousness, incompetence and collusion of the federal government and many legislators have prevented them from discerning that, hidden behind this new stage of the trade agreement, a true war is being waged against our survival as an independent country," the members of the campaign said in an open letter released on Dec. 10. Delegates from the groups involved in the campaign went on a four-day hunger strike in mid-December, calling for a renegotiation of NAFTA. They announced that they would blockade border crossings to the U.S. starting on Jan. 1 if their demands are not addressed. "The campaign against open markets will not change the situation. The best thing to do is to put regrets aside and look within to find out what can be done so that rural areas in Mexico can develop," Ramos said. (Editing by Alana Y. Price) Copyright 2007 Global Information Network |