AGRICULTURAL TRADE LIBERALIZATION UNDER NAFTA: REPORTING ON THE REPORT CARD

NAFTA - Report Card on Agriculture

Table 9: Benefit to Poultry Sub-sector of Own Country from NAFTA-

Percent Response for Each Report Card by Country and
Total.___________________________________________________________

Source: Compiled from response data.

try in participants’ home country. Across countries, a locus of points seems to
have formed around the area of a small gain to no change.

Benefits to the Horticultural Sub-sector

The horticultural sub-sector is an interesting and diverse collection of
fruits, vegetables, nuts, and ornamentals. Each member country in NAFTA has
a combination of these commodity groups which may or may not compete with
other NAFTA countries depending on the particular season and crop. Due to
several factors, such as perishability, limited growing seasons, and sanitary and
phytosanitary issues, the horticultural sub-sector has experienced more than its
share of trade disputes. Thus, it may not be surprising that representatives from
each of the three countries scored their report cards differently.

On an overall basis for both report cards, between two-thirds and three-
fourths of respondents believed their country experienced either small or large
gains from NAFTA, compared to 12 to 18 percent who believed there had been
small or large losses. All participants from Mexico in both report cards thought
they had received large gains from NAFTA. Canadian participants in both
surveys tended to believe there had been either large or small gains from NAFTA,
35 and 41 percent in the first and 47 and 53 in the second, respectively.

While 20 percent of American participants in the first report card felt
there had been large gains to horticulture from NAFTA, none of the U.S. par-
ticipants in the second report card marked this category. However, U.S. re-

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