Is work being done to contruct this highway now? Or is it currently just a cornucopian wet dream?
MEXICO CITY, Mexico (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of farmers clogged central Mexico City Thursday with their slow-moving tractors, protesting the entry of cheap imported corn from the United States and Canada.
On January 1 Mexico repealed all tariffs on corn imported from north of the border as part of a 14-year phaseout under the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
The farmers want the government to renegotiate the 1994 free trade agreement, which removed most trade barriers among Mexico, Canada, and the United States, saying livelihoods are at stake.
"NAFTA is very bad, very bad for Mexican consumers and for Mexican producers," said Victor Quintana, head of Democratic Farmers Front, which organized the protest.
The farmers complain that U.S. and Canadian grains are heavily subsidized and therefore undermine Mexican products.
Despite the long transition to free trade, little has been done to prepare small-scale farmers. Procampo, a government programme meant to provide a minimum income for every farmer, was hijacked years ago by agribusiness, with a big slice of its annual budget of $1.4 billion going to large-scale farmers in the north. Four-fifths of farmers have fewer than five hectares (12 acres), according to the ministry of agriculture. Most are subsistence farmers who rely on maize—a “recipe for poverty”, according to Luis de la Calle, who was one of Mexico's NAFTA negotiators. The ministry estimates that only 6% of farms are “highly efficient and profitable”.
WASHINGTON, DC—After nearly nine years of construction, the Mexi-Canadian Overpass, the controversial $4.3 trillion highway overpass linking Guadalupe and Winnipeg, was finally completed last week, drawing harsh criticism from U.S. citizens and officials alike.
Question: Who is the largest supplier of energy resources to the United States?
Answer: Canada.
Canada exports more crude oil to the United States than any other nation, including Saudi Arabia. All of that oil, along with a gusher of natural gas, comes free of any kind of export controls or tariffs, courtesy of NAFTA. In fact, the United States consumes almost 100 percent of Canada's energy exports.
Which undoubtedly puts Canada in the driver's seat should a new president of the United States decide he or she wanted to "renegotiate" NAFTA.
David Emerson, Canada's trade minister, took some pains to remind Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama of U.S. dependence on foreign (Canadian) oil on Thursday, according to a Globe and Mail story a reader kindly forwarded to me.
Americans' privileged access to Canada's massive oil and gas reserves could be disrupted if Washington cancels the NAFTA accord as Democratic presidential candidates threaten, Canadian Trade Minister David Emerson warned yesterday.
"There's no doubt if NAFTA were to be reopened we would want to have our list of priorities," he said.
In other words, if you Yankees think you can wave a magic wand and "renegotiate NAFTA" so as to be more beneficial to Americans at the expense of Canada's interests, think again, because we'd be happy to close off the oil spigot and sell our crude, to, oh, I don't know, China.
Don't mess with Canada!
timbo wrote:And Joe Sixpack will be there cheering the Prez on. Fargin' Canucks how dare they stop him from drivin' his SUV.
"There's no doubt if NAFTA were to be reopened we would want to have our list of priorities," he said.
Kingcoal wrote:timbo wrote:And Joe Sixpack will be there cheering the Prez on. Fargin' Canucks how dare they stop him from drivin' his SUV.
Actually, there's probably more SUVs and big trucks in Canada per capita, than in the US.
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