The most accurate response regarding the impact of NAFTA on Mexican corn farmers is: Mexican farmers could not compete with government-subsidized U.S. corn.
NAFTA, implemented in 1994, aimed to eliminate trade barriers between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. One significant consequence of this agreement was the influx of heavily subsidized U.S. corn into the Mexican market. U.S. corn farmers benefited from substantial government subsidies, which enabled them to sell their corn at lower prices than Mexican farmers could produce it. This made it difficult for Mexican corn farmers to compete in their own markets, leading to a significant loss of livelihoods for many.
The other options presented do not accurately reflect the primary reasons for the struggles faced by Mexican corn farmers post-NAFTA. Specifically:
- The claim that NAFTA gave subsidies to Mexican corn farmers is not correct; in fact, the opposite happened, as U.S. subsidies undercut local prices.
- The idea that manufacturing jobs processing corn moved to the U.S. and reduced demand for Mexican-grown corn is not significantly substantiated as a major contributor. The loss of these processing jobs is more related to other factors, including the overall shifts in economic focus and globalization.
- The shift in consumer preferences from corn to wheat is not a primary factor attributed to the challenges faced by Mexican farmers due to NAFTA.
Overall, the failure of Mexican corn farmers can largely be traced to their inability to compete with the artificially low prices of imported, subsidized corn from the U.S.