Chuck Grassley: “It has been almost 10 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement--NAFTA--went into effect. Overall, this…”

“It has been almost 10 years since the North American Free Trade Agreement--NAFTA--went into effect. Overall, this agreement has been a great success for America's farmers and ranchers. Between 1994 and 2002, U.S. Agricultural exports to Mexico grew by 95 percent. Mexican agriculture has benefited as well from NAFTA. Exports of Mexican agricultural products to the United States increased by almost 97 percent from 1993 to 2001. At the present time, some 78 percent of all agricultural products exported by Mexico are sent to the United States, making the United States by far the largest market for Mexico's agricultural exports. Clearly, the agricultural sectors of both the United States and Mexico have on the whole profited from NAFTA. For this reason, I am confounded by some of the recent actions of the Mexican government that undermine the spirit, if not the letter, of NAFTA. Mexico has recently imposed, or threatened to impose, trade barriers to a wide variety of U.S. agricultural products.”