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NAFTA Renegotiations Open as Mexican Farmers Protest

HeadlineAug 17, 2017

In Washington, D.C., trade representatives of the U.S., Canada and Mexico opened talks Wednesday to renegotiate NAFTA—the North American Free Trade Agreement. The Trump administration is pressing Canada and Mexico for concessions, claiming NAFTA is tilted against the United States. Meanwhile, thousands of indigenous activists, workers and campesinos marched in Mexico City Wednesday, calling for an end to NAFTA. This is Mexican farmers’ representative José Narro Céspedes.

José Narro Céspedes: “Until now, the effects of the treaty have been negative for the country’s indigenous people and for rural communities and, above all, for the sector that’s dedicated to small agriculture.”

After NAFTA went into effect in 1994, an estimated 2 million agricultural workers left Mexico’s rural areas for cities, as subsidized U.S. corn and other staples flooded the Mexican market.

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