[NYTr] Mexican Officials Fear Unrest over NAFTA; US Reneges on Mexican Sugar Deal
 
Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:21:00 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

US Breaks Sugar Deals with Mexico

Mexico, Dec 25 (Prensa Latina) A few days before the agricultural
portion of the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico comes
into effect, the US continues to renege on the deal for the purchase of
surplus Mexican sugar.

In line with previous NAFTA guidelines, Washington had pledged to
acquire such surplus, but the US government later determined that it
was subject to the purchase of an equal amount of sweeteners by Mexico.

Farmers' organizations denounced the fact that this means the US is
returning the acquired sugar to Mexico, now as sweetener.

According to official statistics, this situation must be improved, as
the elimination of taxes on US and Canadian foods will come into force
on January 1, 2008.

This could result into serious problems for the Mexican sugar industry,
because free imports will bring about reduced prices and will keep
affecting the already-failing economy.

In this regard, the National Union of Sugar Cane Growers accused the US
government of failing to comply with its pledges for the purchase of
surplus sugar each harvest.

This irregularity endangers the agro-industry, which generates over 3
billion dollars, and is the source of income for over 2.5 million
Mexicans in 13 states of the country.

dig jrr 

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Granma Daily - Dec 24, 2007
http://www.granma.cubaweb.cu/english/news/art65.html

Mexican Legislators Fear Unrest over NAFTA

MEXICO, (PL).b Hector Padilla, president of the agriculture committee
of the Mexican House of Representatives, said that when the
agricultural chapter of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
comes into effect January 1 it will lead to social unrest.

Padilla said the scheduled removal of tariffs on the import of food
products from the United States and Canada on January 1, 2008 will
provoke a major crisis in the Mexican countryside.

The impact will be enormous and disastrous for Mexicobs economy because
the policy will destroy the institutional tools that gave strength to
agriculture, said Padilla.

The legislator explained that a worsening of the crisis in the farm
sector would include a drop in production and supply, seriously
impacting the rest of society.

Padilla stressed that the elimination of tariffs on imported corn,
beans, milk and sugar along with flooding the Mexican market with those
products from the North, will cause a great crisis in prices and
further increase the exodus of Mexicans towards the US.

The survival of 90 percent of the rural producers of Mexico who produce
these crops is at stake, he said.

Another legislator, Victor Quintana, from the Party of the Democratic
Revolution (PRD) also spoke out against NAFTA and its negative affect
on the rural Mexican economy.

Quintana announced that on January 1 a protest to denounce the damage
caused to Mexican farmers by the NAFTA treaty will take place on the
Cordoba Bridge that unites Mexico and the US at the Ciudad Juarez-El
Paso border.

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