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World News See other World News Articles Title: Mexican farmer's daughter: NAFTA destroyed us "It has been a one-sided deal from the beginning of NAFTA with massive numbers of jobs and companies lost," Trump tweeted on Jan. 26. But if you ask Griselda Mendoza, the deal nearly destroyed her family and her community of corn farmers in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca. "Before NAFTA, everybody here grew corn. People didn't make much money, but nobody went hungry," says Mendoza, 23, sharing common lore from her region. She was born just after NAFTA was signed. As cheap American corn came pouring in from the border, it had a devastating effect on her family. Her father, Benancio Mendoza, couldn't compete and make a living wage selling corn. He had to give up and move to the United States looking for a job. He took up a job as a cook in Tennessee, saving up money to send home so his kids could attend school. "He went north looking for a job and I didn't see him again for 18 years," says Mendoza, who now works as a secretary for the local government. While NAFTA did boost Mexico's manufacturing industry, it gutted many farming towns -- especially mom and pop corn farmers like Benancio's. Related: Trump isn't Mexico's biggest fear for now Mexico lost over 900,000 farming jobs in the first decade of NAFTA, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture. Mendoza says her small town of Santa Ana Zegache is now inhabited mostly by women and the elderly because working-age men went to the United States looking for jobs -- the vast majority crossing over illegally. NAFTA opened the Mexican market to U.S. corn producers who were subsidized by the U.S. government. That led to a boom in U.S. corn exports to Mexico -- and a bust in Mexican farming jobs like Benancio's. In the first decade of NAFTA, U.S. corn exports to Mexico quadrupled while Mexican corn prices fell 66%, according to Tufts University professor Tim A. Wise, a trade expert. The U.S. is the world's number one producer and exporter of corn - and Mexico is its number one export market. Indeed, some of NAFTA's biggest winners were U.S. farmers. Poster Comment: Of course CNN neglects to mention that NAFTA was passed by Uniparty under Clinton, they are just cheap jackals sniffing for blood. Point is, any time the parties get together on something, BOHICA. It is never about making anything better, except for their donors. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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