Unfair U.S. trade practices undermine Mexico’s food self-sufficiency efforts
New report reveals how U.S. agricultural dumping has led to lost income for Mexican farmers, increased dependency on imports for food staples and high import costs with today’s high prices
Today,a new report from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s Timothy A. Wise documents how the United States’ practice of agricultural dumping of cheap exports into Mexico has hampered the Mexican government’s efforts to improve food self-sufficiency. From 2014 to 2020, the U.S. exported corn and wheat at prices 10% and 27% below what it cost to produce them. Collectively, Mexican corn farmers lost $3.8 billion in value for their crop, while wheat farmers lost $2.1 billion. At a time when the Mexican government is seeking to decrease dependence on key staple foods, such practices undermine efforts to stimulate domestic production.
Prior to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Mexico was nearly self-sufficient in corn, importing just 7% of its needs. By 2008, import levels rose to 30%, and in 2022, they reached 38%. Wheat import dependency has risen from 18% before NAFTA to 66% today. Mexico now imports 48% of its grain and oilseed consumption, with just 52% produced in Mexico.
U.S. policies are challenging Mexico’s ambitious goals for reducing dependence on imports. Not only is the U.S. government currently disputing Mexico's decision to restrict some uses of genetically modified corn, but it has also contributed to Mexico's levels of import dependence by exporting corn, wheat and other basic staples at prices below the cost of production — an unfair trade practice known as “agricultural dumping.”
Swimming Against the Tide: Mexico’s quest for food sovereignty in the face of U.S. agricultural dumpingexamines the impact of cheap U.S. exports on five staple food crops — corn, wheat, beans, rice and dairy — that the Mexican government has prioritized in its efforts to boost domestic production and reduce import-dependence. In 1994, NAFTA eliminated most of the trade restrictions Mexico had used to protect its farmers from foreign competition, and in 16 of the 28 years since, the U.S has dumped corn, soybeans, wheat, rice and cotton exports into Mexico at prices 5%-40% below what it cost to produce them. In turn, Mexican producers of these crops experienced prices drops of 50%-68% in the 12 years after NAFTA took effect. From 2014 to 2020, U.S. exports of priority food crops came into Mexico at unfairly low prices, undermining the incentives for Mexican farmers to increase production.
“In trying to reverse decades of rural neglect and U.S. dumping, the Mexican government is swimming against some very strong tides,” said report author Wise. “Reducing import dependence and increasing domestic production of priority food crops are worthy goals, for a variety of reasons: poverty reduction, rural development, increased resilience to price and supply shocks, greater control over the quality of the food Mexicans consume and even national security.”
Agricultural dumping is an unfair trade practice that is proscribed by a range of international trade agreements. As this report demonstrates, U.S. dumping undermines Mexico’s legitimate efforts to stimulate domestic production of priority food crops and reduce its dependence on imports. In addition, dumping is bad for U.S. farmers and rural communities, as low prices undermine local economies and leave farmers dependent on expensive yet inefficient government subsidies.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems.
'Voters Won Big': Wisconsin Supreme Court Restores Ballot Drop Boxes
"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote," said Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. "This is a victory for our democracy."
Democracy defenders in Wisconsin celebrated on Friday after the state Supreme Court ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes can be located throughout communities for the November elections, reversing a decision from two years ago, when there was a majority of right-wing justices.
"Wisconsin voters won big today with the decision to reinstate drop boxes across the Badger State," said All Voting is Local Wisconsin state director Sam Liebert in a statement. "Drop boxes are an incredibly popular form of voting that offer greater access to the elections for those who may not be able to wait in line at the polls, particularly those with disabilities."
"Wisconsin voters should have more options, and drop boxes are a secure and easy way to increase civic participation and ensure voters have another safe, secure, and accessible way to cast their ballot," Liebert added.
Common Cause Wisconsin co-chair Penny Bernard Schaber, whose group joined an amicus brief to the court in May, also welcomed the ruling, saying that "reinstating the use of secure ballot drop boxes is good for all of us in Wisconsin."
"It is especially good for individual voters who have mobility issues and time constraints that make it difficult for them to go into and out of a polling place or an election clerk's office," the former Democratic state representative similarly stressed. "Secure ballot drop boxes are a necessary and safe way to return our ballots."
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) declared: "This is huge news for democracy! Making it easier for folks to vote is a good thing."
Common Cause Wisconsin pointed out that "voter drop boxes have been used since before 2016 and in 2020-21, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of drop boxes was expanded to 570 located in 66 of Wisconsin's 72 counties. The expanded number of drop boxes, authorized by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), offered voters a more convenient and safe way to ensure that their absentee ballots could be returned in time to be counted, in part because of the uncertainty of timely delivery of ballots by the U.S. Postal Service."
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the majority opinion that "our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes. It merely acknowledges what Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1. has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion."
She was joined by the other three liberals, including Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose election last year ended right-wing control of the court. Wisconsinites are preparing for a similar electoral battle next year, when Walsh Bradley plans to retire.
The court earlier this week agreed to take up a pair of high-profile abortion cases. Late last year, the liberal majority threw out Wisconsin's legislative maps, which were rigged to favor Republicans. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new maps in February.
Applauding the ruling on Friday, Evers said that the court "affirmed what we've been saying all along: Drop box voting is safe, secure, and legal, and local clerks should be empowered to make decisions that make sense for their local communities."
"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote," he continued. "This is a victory for our democracy. And we're going to keep fighting to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot safely, securely, and as easily as possible to make sure their voices are heard."
The decision comes as Wisconsin is expected to play a key role in this year's contest for the White House. Democratic President Joe Biden, who is now seeking reelection and campaigning in Wisconsin on Friday, won the state by about 20,000 votes in 2020, when he beat former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee.
'Disturbing Milestone': Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Surpass 1,000 Since October 7
"While a few individuals have been detained, no civilian or soldier has been prosecuted in connection with any of these 1,000 attacks," said a coalition of aid agencies.
A coalition of aid agencies on Friday implored the international community to take concrete, punitive action against the Israeli government and settlers after the number of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since October 7 surpassed 1,000.
The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), a group of international organizations working in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that the rate of settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank has doubled since the same time last year, from an average of two per day to four.
"At least 10 people, including two children, have been killed during these attacks, and at least 234 have been injured, including 20 children. Since 7 October, 1,260 people, including 600 children, have been forcibly displaced amid settler violence and movement restrictions. The displaced households are from 20 herding and Bedouin communities throughout Area C of the West Bank. As one survivor of settler violence explained, 'No place is safe here.'"
"Settler violence is premeditated and orchestrated by organized groups from known outposts and settlements, with the support of Israel's government, including local and regional settlement councils," the group added, noting the limited sanctions that the United States and the European Union have imposed on individual settlers "have failed to reduce the frequency of attacks."
"While a few individuals have been detained, no civilian or soldier has been prosecuted in connection with any of these 1,000 attacks," AIDA said. "Reports indicate that some illegal outpost farms operated by sanctioned settlers—many of whom have been reported to be at the center of multiple violent incidents—have received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of material support from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Settlements, the Settlement Administration in the Ministry of Defense, and through local and regional settlement councils."
"Foreign governments must act now to stop this illegal appropriation by taking meaningful measures to hold the Israeli government and perpetrators of these attacks to account."
AIDA urged the international community to "adopt new restrictive measures which go beyond individual settlers to target identified organizations and state entities who promote violence and/or take part in attacks on Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure."
The group also argued that the far-right Israeli government "should be held accountable for the repeated and evidence-based allegations that the military and other state authorities are tolerating, enabling, and at times participating in settler violence."
A Human Rights Watch report published in April found that the Israeli military "either took part in or did not protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks in the West Bank that have displaced people from 20 communities and have entirely uprooted at least seven communities" since October 7.
AIDA's statement came days after the Israeli government announced the seizure of nearly five square miles of land in the West Bank—Israel's largest land grab in the occupied Palestinian territory in more than three decades.
Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa director for Oxfam International—an AIDA member—said Friday that settler attacks in the West Bank have reached a "disturbing milestone."
"In a context where outpost legalization is being fast-tracked, and Israel is stealing more and more land," said Khalil, "foreign governments must act now to stop this illegal appropriation by taking meaningful measures to hold the Israeli government and perpetrators of these attacks to account."
'I Was Beaten Day and Night': Freed Gaza Detainees Allege Torture by Israeli Forces
"Our eyes were blindfolded, our hands and feet shackled, and they set dogs on us."
Palestinians recently released from detention by Israeli forces alleged in newly released interviews that they were subjected to various forms of torture during their time in prison, including frequent beatings and sleep deprivation.
"I was beaten day and night," 37-year-old Mahmud al-Zaanin, toldAgence France-Presse from his bed at Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital. "Our eyes were blindfolded, our hands and feet shackled, and they set dogs on us."
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been detained en masse, often without charge, since Israel launched its latest assault on the Gaza Strip following a deadly Hamas-led attack on October 7. Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization, estimates that 54 Palestinians—the majority of them from Gaza—have died in Israeli prisons since October "due to torture, inhumane detention conditions, systematic abuse, and deliberate attacks."
AFP spoke to some of the dozens of recently freed Palestinian detainees who were taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital following their release from Israeli prisons on June 11.
One man, identified as Zaanin, said he was denied access to the bathroom and medical treatment and deprived of sleep. Another man told the news agency that his "hands were injured from electric torture" and that he witnessed "more than 30 prisoners with amputated legs, some with both legs missing, and some with both eyes missing."
Whistleblower accounts from Israel's notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev desert have alleged that Israeli doctors have amputated the limbs of detainees due to injuries caused by handcuffing—"a routine event," according to one doctor's testimony.
"Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars."
The treatment described by freed Palestinian detainees constitutes a grievous violation of international humanitarian law.
One recently released Palestinian man told AFP that "some young men died from excess beatings and dog attacks." AFP noted that the man showed "scars on his arms which he said were from dog bites." According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Israeli military has used trained police dogs to "systematically attack Palestinian civilians during military operations in the Gaza Strip."
Earlier this week, as Common Dreamsreported, the director of what was once Gaza's main hospital said he was tortured by Israeli forces during his seven months in prison. Muhammad Abu Salmiya said he, like so many other Palestinian detainees, was held without charge.
"Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars," Abu Salmiya said. "There was almost daily torture."
Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, said in May that she "received allegations of individuals being beaten, kept in cells blindfolded and handcuffed for excessive periods, deprived of sleep, and threatened with physical and sexual violence."
She noted at the time that it appears "no effective measures have been taken by the Israeli authorities to investigate these allegations."
"The Israeli authorities must investigate all complaints and reports of torture or ill-treatment promptly, impartially, effectively, and transparently," said Edwards. "Those responsible at all levels, including commanders, must be held accountable, while victims have a right to reparation and compensation."