• NAFTA, by permitting heavily-subsidized US corn and other agri-business products to compete with small Mexican farmers, has driven the Mexican farmer off the land due to low-priced
       imports of US corn and other agricultural products.
• NAFTA's service-sector rules allowed big firms like Wal-Mart to enter the Mexican market and, selling low-priced goods made by underpaid workers in China, to displace locally-based shoe, toy, and candy firms. An estimated 28,000 small and medium-sized Mexican businesses have been eliminated.
• This has arguably led to a massive increase in the migration of undocumented Mexican workers to the US to seek out better paying jobs.
      
      

Bush
is pushing to pass a Chilean free trade pact ASAP.  While the overall
Chilean economy has grown recently, arguably because of its trade pact with the
US,
it has one of the greatest disparities of wealth in the world. Chilean workers
in farming, mining, and salmon sectors have seen a massive increase in the
number of temporary, subcontracted jobs available. These workers wages barely
keep with rapidly increasing living costs and workers are excluded from many of
Chile's
previously strong social benefits.

When
Obama is elected president, it is crucial that we push him to reform trade
agreements so that they help, not hurt, workers and small farmers around the
world.