A very interesting discussion. I just wanted to comment on the New York Times article that you linked to. As you say, it was important in forming your opinion on Doha. And that’s entirely understandable because it has a reputation as the US paper of record.

I am not at all sure that I agree with the argument of the article that imports of corn from the United States are driving the small Mexican farmer out of business.

1. The imports from the States are yellow corn for animal feed. The small Mexican farmer grows white corn, the only corn regarded as fit for human consumption. His major competitor therefore is the large Mexican farmer who also grows white corn. He has the same machinery, acreage etc as his counterpart in the States. Mexican white corn production has in fact grown greatly since NAFTA and Mexico is more or less self sufficient in white corn. Also the price of meat has come way down making it accessible to everyone.

2. For a long time, the Mexican government subsidized tortillas, the maize flatbreads that are the basis of the Mexican diet. This chiefly benefited people in the cities. Farmers who grew their own simply found the prices of maize depressed (or so I believe). The price was allowed to rise with NAFTA but in the last year it has been capped again.

3. Most small farmers have cooperative land that they received about seventy years ago with the break up of the huge haciendas (farms). Since then the population has soared. Until a few years ago the land could not be sold, so that more and more people were trying to eke out a living out of the same small plot. Moreover much of this land is marginal at best. In my state, for example, much of it is on land where the rains do not come 2 years out of seven. Not much incentive to plant. And much cannot be irrigated because it is on hills or mountain sides.

Thus the small Mexican farmer was in deep trouble before NAFTA. You cannot make a living on 4 or 5 acres of marginal land. And most Mexicans are no longer content with subsistence. They want to send their children to school, have electricity, running water, a television, and so on.

Well, that’s beside the point. The major point is that the problem of farmers with plots too small to support themselves is a serious one and so is the question of how they can somehow make better lives for themselves. But at least in the case of NAFTA, so far as I can see, that was so regardless of free trade.