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CROSSBORDER UPDATER | February 13, 2004 Vol. 2, No. 2
c o n t e n t s :
NAFTA, Foreign Direct Investment, and Sustainable Industrial
Development in Mexico | Policy Brief by Lyuba Zarsky and Kevin P.
Gallagher NAFTA, Corn, and Mexico's Agricultural Liberalization |
Special Report by Giselle Henriques and Raj Patel Seven Myths of
NAFTA | Fact Sheet by Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo, and Marcos
Chavez
Distributed by the IRC's Americas Program "A New World of Ideas,
Analysis, and Policy Options."
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Dear Friends,
In this issue of the Crossborder Updater, the Americas Program
presents the first of two special issues analyzing ten years of the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). If there's one thing
that both its defenders and detractors agree on, it's that NAFTA
represents the seminal experiment on the effects of free trade on
developing nations in the world. This issue focuses on the treaty's
impact on the agricultural and industrial sectors in Mexico, and
examines the implications of free trade for national development.
The second packet looks at the results of a decade of cross-border
dialogue between the U.S. and Mexico, and questions the free trade
assumption of economic convergence based on NAFTA data, among other
articles. Future issues will discuss the current situation in
Venezuela, the Bush administration's new foreign policy and its
implications for the Americas, and Nicaraguan women's efforts to
defend the separation of church and state.
So much in our world is changing, often in unforeseen and dangerous
directions. The need for North-South communication and serious
political analysis has perhaps never been so acute.
We need your support to continue to do this work. Individual donations
are the best way to assure a solid and independent funding base for
our work and donating is a concrete way to express your commitment
to freedom of expression, access to information, and a just U.S.
foreign policy. Please donate to the Americas Program. You can do
so via our online secure server at
https://secure.iexposure.com/irc/donate.cfm or by sending a check
or money order to: Interhemispheric Resource Center Americas Program,
PO Box 4506, Albuquerque, NM 87196-4506
Also invite your friends and colleagues to join our broad community
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Crossborder Updater--read it, act on it, send us letters, tell us
what you think.
(Laura Carlsen <laura@irc-online.org> is director of the Americas
Program (online at www.americaspolicy.org), a program of the
Interhemispheric Resource Center (online at www.irc-online.org )
Announcement
Position Available: IRC Communications Director The IRC, a nonprofit
policy studies institute based in southern New Mexico (www.irc-online.org),
is looking for a full-time communications director. The communications
director will be involved in all IRC activities, primarily organized
around the three programs: Global Affairs/Foreign Policy In Focus
(www.fpif.org), Americas (www.americaspolicy.org), and Right Web
(www.right-web.org). Apply before March 1, 2004 by emailing cover
letter, resume, 3 references, and 3 examples of your work (Microsoft
Word or .PDF files only. Zip if larger than 1 megabyte) ASAP to:
Debra Preusch, IRC Executive Director, at <deb@irc-online.org>.
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New from the IRC's Americas Program:
NAFTA, Foreign Direct Investment, and Sustainable Industrial
Development in Mexico by Lyuba Zarsky and Kevin P. Gallagher
Ten years after the passage of NAFTA, it is clear that the operation
was successful. Foreign investment inflows and exports have boomed.
Beyond its poor performance in terms of economic growth, jobs and
industrial pollution, the neoliberal integration strategy has
undermined, rather than nurtured, Mexico's indigenous productive
capacities. In terms of Mexico's long-term prospects for sustainable
industrial development, the patient is not well.
This new policy brief provides an economic analysis of the flawed
industrial development model promoted by NAFTA.
Zarsky and Gallagher are researchers at the Global Development and
Environment Institute, Tufts University, and they are analysts
associated with the IRC's Americas Program (online at
www.americaspolicy.org).
See full article online at
http://www.americaspolicy.org/briefs/2004/0401mexind.html
NAFTA, Corn, and Mexico's Agricultural Liberalization by Giselle
Henriques and Raj Patel
The architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
knew that in the short run there would be winners and losers under
the agreement. The potential losses for Mexico were mainly concentrated
in the agricultural sector--particularly for import-competing
farmers. Although agriculture accounts for less than 5% of the gross
domestic product, one-quarter of the Mexican workforce still lives
off the land. The geographical and social distribution of the losers
was also predictable--small farmers and people who were already
poor, primarily in the south.
Indicators of rural poverty show a larger incidence of poverty, and
deeper poverty in 1998 than in 1989. The most recent numbers provided
by the Mexican Agricultural Ministry, SAGARPA, state that as of
2001, 81.5% of people in rural areas were living in poverty. A study
by Mexico's center for Economic Research and Teaching found that
since 1992, the proportion of workers employed in agriculture has
shrunk by 10% and that rural wages are 30% lower than other sectors
of the economy. While a few large farmers and transnational food
conglomerates have done well under liberalized agriculture in Mexico,
their success masks, in aggregate, the plight of smaller subsistence
farmers.
Subsistence producers are among the poorest segment of the population,
and their deprivation has resulted in increased environmental
degradation, increased poverty, and migration.
Gisele Henriques and Raj Patel are researchers at Food First/The
Institute for Food and Development Policy.
See full article online at
http://www.americaspolicy.org/reports/2004/0402nafta.html
Seven Myths About NAFTA and Three Lessons for Latin America by
Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo, and Marcos Chavez
As Latin America and the rest of the Western Hemisphere gathers in
Miami for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Ministerial
this week, its time to look at the reality behind the myths about
the impact of NAFTA on Mexico:
1. The GDP growth rate in Mexico has remained stagnant since 1983.
Nafta did not change that. Since Nafta was approved average per
capita GDP growth has been 1%, which is similar to the slump of the
1930's, and much less than the 3.4% increases during the period of
1945-1980.
2. Mexico has a permanent trade deficit. The myth of Mexico as an
export giant evaporates when we consider that, next to the surplus
with the US, there is a booming trade deficit with Asia and Europe
which increased by 600% and 400% respectively since 1994, when NAFTA
was enacted.
Produced by Alejandro Nadal, Francisco Aguayo and Marcos Chavez of
the Science, Technology and Development Program (PROCIENTEC), El
Colegio de Mixico: http://www.colmex.mx/centros/cee/procientec/.
Contact:
a_nadalpcyt@yahoo.com.mx
See full article online at
http://www.americaspolicy.org/articles/2003/0311_7-myths.html
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"A New World of Ideas, Analysis and Policy Options"
For more information about the Americas Program and the Interhemispheric
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