Sherrod Brown: “As the President prepares to ask Congress for fast track negotiating authority, heated debate continues on the economic…”

“As the President prepares to ask Congress for fast track negotiating authority, heated debate continues on the economic effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement. There is no debate, however, on the serious threat that NAFTA poses to food safety in the United States. In an effort to increase trade with Mexico, NAFTA limits border inspections of food, it allows Mexican trucks to enter the United States with limited inspection. As a result, NAFTA is directly responsible for a significant increase in imports of contaminated foods into the United States. These lax inspection procedures contributed to a sharp increase in food imports from Mexico. Imports of Mexican fruit have increased 45 percent, and vegetable imports have increased 31 percent. More than 70 percent of these imports are carried into the United States by truck. As the General Accounting Office recently documented, these trucks, many of which have been identified as dangerous themselves, pass through the border uninspected, bringing increasing amounts of food tainted with diseases and unhealthy pesticides. In fact, the GAO found that over 99 percent of Mexican trucks coming into the United States were never inspected, and of those that were inspected, almost half of them were found to be unsafe. We were alarmed earlier this year when 179 Michigan schoolchildren contracted hepatitis after eating tainted Mexican strawberries.”