MEXICO CITY - Mexico may lose as many as 350,000 farm jobs this year because of competition from U.S. corn and sugar producers under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the head of Mexico's largest farm workers' group said.
Mexico will have surpluses of sugar, beans and corn in 2008, Cruz Lopez Aguilar, head of the National Confederation of Farm Workers, said Thursday in an interview in Mexico City.
Lopez Aguilar and 6,000 delegates from his organization will ask Mexico's agriculture minister to renegotiate NAFTA, which opened Mexico to U.S. imports of corn, sugar, milk and beans on Jan. 1. The government should guarantee purchases of surpluses from Mexican farmers before buying from Canada or the U.S., he said.
"Mexico's agricultural products must end up on Mexican tables," Lopez Aguilar said. "If we don't resolve the problem, we could lose as many as 350,000 jobs."
Mexico's Speaker of the House, Ruth Zavaleta, said in a statement that she would ask president Felipe Calderon to renegotiate the terms of NAFTA.
The opposition deputy said NAFTA would force many farmers and their families to cross into the U.S. illegally for better jobs.
"We don't see an alternative in our country for them to have immediate employment," Zavaleta said.
Lopez Aguilar also said the loss of business may spur more Mexicans to enter the U.S. illegally.
The confederation of farm workers will protest the opening of markets by taking over government offices and holding a protest in Mexico City's central square on Jan. 31, Lopez Aguilar said.Windsor Star (Ontario)/Bloomberg News Service
