Squeezed by U.S. corn Mexican farmers fault NAFTA for low-cost imports By Teresa Puente Tribune staff reporter
August 3, 2001
AHUATEPEC DEL CAMINO, Mexico -- Hard-pressed corn farmers here are echoing complaints more commonly heard in rural communities of Illinois.
They say international trade and the tide of imports it brings are endangering their farms. In particular they fear that inexpensive American corn from major producing states like Illinois will squeeze them out of the market.
"Free trade is threatening us and our way of life," said Jose Pedro Mariano, 59, his face weather-beaten from years of working his cornfields nestled beneath the Pico de Orizaba volcano in the state of Puebla.
Mariano looks out at the 20 acres that his grandfather fought for during the Mexican Revolution and wonders whether he will be able to sell all of his harvest this fall.
As a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement, more U.S. corn is flooding the Mexican market. This may be good for big industry and states like Illinois, but small Mexican farmers like Mariano are feeling the pressure.
And trade between Mexico and Illinois is only likely to grow.
On a mission to expand
Trade and agriculture issues have been a major topic of discussion between Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Mexican President Vicente Fox, who last met during Fox's visit to Chicago in July.
Illinois officials were in Mexico last week to talk about ethanol and how the state can share technology to help Mexico develop a sugar-based ethanol industry for its own consumption. In turn, Illinois could explore new markets for its corn products.
"Finding ways to use these products--an alternative use for sugar and alternative uses for our corn--that's what we're all after," said Joseph Hampton, director of the Illinois Department of Agriculture, after a recent meeting in Mexico City. "We're looking at things we think are win-win."
Mexico is already Illinois' second-largest trading partner and its No. 2 corn buyer. The nation takes in about $950 million worth of U.S. corn, with Illinois providing 16 percent of that total, according to the Illinois Corn Growers Association.
Mexican officials will visit Illinois for another meeting later this summer. But this dialogue comes amid a crisis in Mexico's sugar, corn and coffee industries. Farmer protests have been taking place across the country.
A state of emergency was declared last month in the northern state of Sinaloa, where farmers blocked entrances to gasoline depots to demand higher tariffs on corn imported from the United States. In the border state of Chihuahua, farmers demonstrated against U.S. corn shipments, and corn farmers in Chiapas have threatened to block highways.
Low prices fuel migration
A 45 percent drop in corn prices over the past three years has hurt Mexico's 3.5 million corn growers. As many as 400,000 corn farmers have either sold or rented out their lands in the last seven years under NAFTA. Many have migrated north of the border or to Mexico's urban centers in search of work.
"The state of Illinois produces a great amount of corn that is exported to Mexico. If they want to export more corn to Mexico, they should be prepared to import Mexican migrants to Chicago," said Victor Suarez, the executive director of a national agricultural producers association that helps small farmers.
The towns of Ahuatepec and San Miguel Ocotenco have lost many of their residents, who have given up the farming life.
Three of Flora Peralta's children emigrated to Los Angeles. They earned only $5 a day working the family's cornfields.
"Here you kill yourself working," said Peralta, 60, of San Miguel Ocotenco, where corn patches separate the modest homes and there is no indoor plumbing. "We barely earn enough to pay for our seeds."
There was an excess of more than 220 tons of corn that the local farmers could not sell after the last harvest, said Fernando Matias, leader of a local farm association.
"The price of corn is very low, and this is hitting us very hard," said Matias, 37, who farms 40 acres that yield about 64 tons of corn a season.
Mexican farmers complain there should be higher tariffs and fear that more of them will go out of business when the corn market opens up completely in 2008.
The producers association is waging a legal effort to increase to 30 percent the tariffs on corn imported beyond NAFTA quotas. They are against a recent government decree that sets tariffs of only 1 percent to 3 percent on corn imported beyond quotas.
They are facing an uphill battle.
Supporters of the corn industrialists dismiss the small farmers' complaints.
"That's a political attitude, not a real attitude. What they are looking for are subsidies and bigger gifts from the government," said Jose Enrique Tron, director of the National Chamber of Industrialized Corn in Mexico City.
Many small farmers face the challenge of modernization and are still using ancient methods of planting corn seed by seed with a stick-like tool.
Farmers have accused Fox, who is the son of a rancher, and his administration of ignoring their needs. The agriculture minister, Javier Usabiaga, has publicly said that farmers need to adapt and even suggested they find new areas of work.
But the farmers' concerns remain.
Bottom line exacts high price
Around 6 million tons of U.S. corn will be imported to Mexico this year, just under half the total needed to make everything from tortillas to the starch used in making corn fructose syrup to feed for farm animals.
Tron said it's cheaper to import corn from the United States. He also said Mexico doesn't have adequate storage capacity for domestic corn and that train transportation within Mexico is inefficient and expensive.
"It's easier to [transport] corn from Illinois than to have corn from Sinaloa or Guanajuato," Tron said.
But Suarez said the cheaper U.S. corn imports have not resulted in lower tortilla prices for the Mexican consumer. He keeps a chart from the Chicago Board of Trade tracing the price of corn over the last 10 years.
Suarez said the only ones who are profiting are large industrialists in the United States and Mexico. He also charged they are dumping substandard corn onto the Mexican market.
"The North American agriculture policy hurts the small family farmers in the U.S. and the campesino producers in Mexico. It only benefits the big processing companies and the big exporting companies," Suarez said.
Looking toward the future
The Illinois Corn Growers Association, however, welcomes the dialogue between Mexico and Illinois.
Illinois corn farmers could benefit by increasing sales of high fructose corn syrup into Mexico. If Mexico develops its own ethanol alternative for sugar, it also could prevent Mexican sugar from flooding the U.S. market, said Mark Lambert, a spokesman for the corn growers.
"It will open markets for the future," Lambert said.
Mariano hopes for a future in which he can pass the family farm on to his sons. One of his sons moved to Mexico City, where he works in a warehouse, and another works as an electrician in Puebla. His two other sons work the farm with him.
"Life is very hard here, but we have to keep fighting for our farms," Mariano said.
Copyright © 2001, Chicago Tribune
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