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Base Line

Trade Regimes and Rural Poverty

Date

March 7 2003


In 2001:

  • 214 million people, nearly 43% of the Latin American population live in poverty.
  • 54 million people suffer from malnutrition (11% of the total population), the majority of whom are women and children.
  • 123 million people (25% of the total population) live in rural areas and depend directly or indirectly on agriculture.
  • 77 million of these live in poverty, 47 million live in extreme poverty.

In 2002:

  • The number of people living in poverty is expected to increase to 221 million.

Mexico Case Study:

  • Basic grains imports into Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) doubled between 1994 and 2001 to 110 million tons with a value of $18.5 billion.
  • In the case of corn, Mexico imports an average of 6 million tons annually, compared to 2.5 million tons prior to NAFTA.
  • The US exports wheat at 46%, and corn at 20%, below their production price.

  • Mexico's increasing reliance on imports has led to actual prices to Mexican producers falling between 35% and 60%.

  • Today, the price of corn for producers is $80 per ton though production cost is $120 per ton - domestic production has stagnated, food dependency has increased and the livelihoods of 2.5 million corn producers have been affected.
  • The price reduction has not benefited consumers and the price of tortillas, the base diet of the majority of Mexicans, has risen from 0.80 pesos/kg in 1993 to 5.00 pesos/kg in 2002.


Source

Oxfam Briefing Paper: Make Trade Fair in the Americas Agriculture, Investment and Intellectual Property: Three Reasons to Say No to the FTAA (PDF)

Material for Base Line has been compiled from original sources. Click on the external source names for further details. External links are checked when the item is posted to the archives but cannot be guaranteed over time. Appearance on this site does not imply endorsement by partners to The Communication Initiative.

Please send ideas for Base Line to Chris Morry cmorry@comminit.com


Placed on the Communication Initiative site March 06 2003
Last Updated March 06 2003

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