Mexico

Trade Stories Project

Why America and the World Need a New Model for Trade

NAFTA's Impact in Mexico

For too long, debates over international trade have been dominated by corporate elites and economic ideologues, rather than rooted in the experiences of ordinary people.

The Trade Stories Project allows people who have been affected by policies and institutions like NAFTA and the WTO to share their views on a matter crucial to the global economy.

This includes displaced workers, farmers, small business owners and immigrants who have been typically excluded from the trade debate.

"Not only did [NAFTA] have an adverse affect on certain [U.S.] communities that saw jobs move down to Mexico, but, for example, our agricultural section pretty much devastated a much less efficient Mexican farming system...

"As a practical matter, those are millions of people in Mexico who are displaced. Many of whom now are moving up to the United States, contributing to the immigration concerns that people are feeling. And so, those human factors should be taken into account."

—Barack Obama (Fortune Magazine interview, 6/18/08)

NAFTA’s Impact in Mexico's Rural Communities

In Mexico, there is a saying: “Without corn, there is no country.” Under NAFTA, tariff-free imports of subsidized corn, wheat and other agricultural products from the United States have undercut Mexican farmers’ ability to make a living. The “free trade” pact is forcing Mexican farmers who do not benefit from government subsidies to compete against transnational corporations who do. It is a clear losing proposition.
Without the ability to sell crops at a profit, a huge percentage of Mexico’s rural population has migrated to cities, border towns and the United States looking for work. In less than fifteen years, approximately one-third of the the country's rural population has already migrated searching for work — a major exodus.
In the early 1990s, Mexico amended its constitution in order to initiate land reforms as a prerequisite to joining NAFTA. These reforms have lead to the privatization of farmland that was previously community-owned. Small farmers who have resisted privatization now face difficulties getting loans for fertilizer, seed and other necessities.

“The only people that are left working in the countryside are the old people… We’re losing our roots, we’re losing our culture and we’re seeing a disintegration of the family.”

— Gustavo Lopez Pozos, Farmer (Hear more from Gustavo)

“Small farmers continue to produce on the land for their own consumption to survive, but it is no longer possible to gain income from the land… We have a woman here who put up her house as collateral so that she could get fertilizer to plant her land, and now the bank wants to take her house away from her.”

— Luz Rivera, Community Organizer (Hear more from Luz and others)

NAFTA’s Impact in Mexico's Urban Communities

In the early years of NAFTA, many of Mexico’s small and medium-sized businesses were either displaced or bought up by transnational corporations. Employees at displaced businesses were obviously out-of-work, but even many of the companies bought by international investors reduced their workforces through the introduction of new technologies.
The influx of migrants from rural communities into the cities has created additional demand for jobs, contributing to unemployment and a reduction in real wages. Large numbers of people are now employed in the “informal economy,” selling gum on street corners, working as parking lot attendants, shining shoes and so on.
In the early 1990s, Wal-Mart did not even exist in Mexico. Today, Wal-Mart is Mexico’s largest employer.

Benedicto Martinez “We’re seeing an increase in poverty, a decrease in the purchasing power of workers’ wages, and an increase in unemployment… This is the cost of our entrance into the first world.”

— Benedicto Martinez, Labor Leader (Hear more from Benedicto)

Hector de la Cueva “I think it is the correct moment to reframe the old question about NAFTA. At the beginning of the negotiations, people would ask, ‘Which country will win under NAFTA?’ After all these years, it’s clear that this question was wrong. The question was, ‘Who will win and who will lose?’ Now it’s clear that the people lost and the rich companies won.”

— Hector de la Cueva, Labor Activist (Hear more from Hector)

NAFTA’s Impact in Mexico's Border Communities

Under NAFTA, there has been an increase in maquiladora jobs, particularly along the border in northern Mexico. A maquiladora, or maquila, is a factory that assembles or manufactures imported materials for export to other countries. The minimum wage for this work is 54 pesos a day, which at the time of this writing is less than $4 U.S. Some maquiladoras are significant sources of pollution and expose their employees to dangerous chemicals. Many require assembly-line work prone to repetitive stress injuries.
In order to attract additional foreign investment, the government has invested considerable revenue in state-of-the-art infrastructure for industrial parks, while largely neglecting infrastructure and other public service needs in the neighborhoods where maquiladora workers live.
In Ciudad Juarez, the city home to the most maquiladoras in Mexico, there are no independent labor unions. Only about 10% of the city’s maquila workers are unionized at all, and those unions are notoriously corrupt “company unions.” Real labor organizing can be dangerous in Mexico, and labor rights activists accuse the government of wanting to prevent growth in independent unions.

Martha Miker “The government rightly believes that if they regulate too much, companies aren’t going to come here. They’re thinking about the tens of thousands of jobs that have been created here with the help of foreign investment, that the state would not have been able to create on its own. But they’re not thinking about the quality of the jobs that are being created.”

— Martha Miker, Professor (Hear more from Martha)

Daniel at CETLAC “What does a free trade agreement do for a single mother, who has to be the mother, has to be the father, has to play all of those family roles? We’re talking about fifty-four pesos a day. With only fifty-four pesos a day, this mother, who is the only bread-winner, is expected to pay for water, electricity, gas, food, education.”

— Daniel, Labor Activist (Hear more from Daniel)

Angel Andasola “One of the things to understand is that in Mexico there are ‘ghost unions’ that exist. So, I might be a worker. Nobody is taking dues from me. Nobody is saying that they’re representing me. It’s not until the workers organize themselves and say that they want a contract, that an arbitrator will come in and say, ‘You already have a union. What’s going on here?’”

— Angel Andasola, Labor Activist (Hear more from Angel)