AGRICULTURAL TRADE LIBERALIZATION UNDER NAFTA: REPORTING ON THE REPORT CARD

NAFTA - Report Card on Agriculture

Table 3: Benefit to Primary Agriculture Sector of Own Country

Derived from NAFTA--Percent Response for Each Report
Card by Country and Total.____________________________

Source: Compiled from response data.

that their primary agriculture sector had received a large gain, while 27 percent
believed there had been a small gain, and six percent indicated a small loss.
Also in the first report card, Canadians were evenly split between a large gain
and a small gain, while Americans and Mexicans strongly believed that there
had been a small gain, 80 percent and 75 percent, respectively. The remainder
of U.S. responses were divided between a large gain and a small loss, while the
other Mexican responses were in the large-gain category.

The second report card did not produce significant changes for the all-
country averages, but there were major changes for Mexico with some shift
from small gain to small loss. U.S. responses witnessed some shift toward no
change. Perhaps the assumption that a smaller economy often gains more than
a large country from a free-trade agreement helps explain the Canadian indica-
tion of a large gain for their primary agriculture sector compared to the United
States. However, this certainly does not help explain the Mexican response,
which was very similar to the U.S. response.

Workshop participants were asked about the benefit of NAFTA for seven
agri-food sectors and sub-sectors in their economy. Their responses differed
considerably both across sub-sectors and countries. While some responses may
be due to varying levels of participant information on particular sub-sectors, it
can also be argued that varying responses across countries may be an indica-

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