100 



one-sided agreement, the NAFTA contains an 

 even worse flaw in that section 22 (B) was traded 

 away and will no longer exist. This was done 

 while allowing Canada to keep Article 11 of its 

 trade law, which is its equivalent of Section 22 

 (B). 



Let's Even the Playing Field 



The National Farmers Union is not against trade. 

 NFU is opposed to unfair trade practices which 

 have long gone unchecked. NFU is opposed to 

 practices that victimize American family farmers, 

 jeopardize the jobs of American workers in the 

 food industry, and increase the cost to taxpayers, 

 while at the same time lowering the safety 

 standards of the food we consume. 



NFU believes that in order to negotiate effective 

 agreements for the future, the negotiators must 

 not repeat the mistakes of the past In the 

 NAFTA, the negotiators have done just that. 

 The problems of the CFTA been ignored by 

 those who negotiated the NAFTA In fact, 

 American farmers may well find themselves 

 burdened with a trade agreement which is 

 weaker and even more riddled with mistakes 

 than the CFTA 



Decrease in Number of U.S. Farms 



From 1988 to 1992 



Number of U.S. Farm* DecJint 6% 



Side Agreements Are Not Our 

 Salvation 



Finally, NFU believes thai the much-discussed side 

 agreements are at best, limited in power and at 

 worst, meaningless and misleading. 



• Side agreements cannot change anything 

 already agreed to in NAFTA. They can only add 

 supplemental language for clarification. 



• The side agreements cannot interfere with 

 the sovereignty of any country which has signed 

 the agreement. 



• No country will ever sign a side agreement 

 which would weaken the position it has agreed to 

 in the original treaty. We see the talk of side 

 agreements as a way of telling members of 

 Congress that their concerns will be taken can of. 

 At the same time, our trading partners are told 

 that nothing will change the agreement they have 

 signed In short, the side agreements are destined 

 to be meaningless, because no country would sign 

 them if they were otherwise. 



We Can Do Better 



Remember the American farmer as the orphan 

 left on the doorstep of CFTA negotiations? 

 Well in the NAFTA be was left on the doorstep 

 without the benefit of his blanket and basket - 

 Section 22 (B). 



Keep in mind that if all these well documented 

 problems occur under the CFTA, an agreement 

 with the one country which has been our closest 

 neighbor and ally, a country which has greater 

 similarity to the U.S. than any other in ways 

 ranging from language to living standards, what 

 happens when you apply a much weaker 

 document to a country which has none of those 

 commonalities and possesses a well known 

 reputation for corruption in most levels of 

 government? 



NFU does not want to find out. In fact, 

 American family farmers and many others 

 simply cannot afford to find out. American 



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