Contact: Ana Rahona of Women's Edge Coalition, 202-884-8399 or 202-236-5341 (cell)
WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Women's Edge Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that advocates international economic policies and human rights that support poor women worldwide, today announced it has completed its groundbreaking case study to analyze the impact of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and future impact of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) on Mexico's poor farmers, with a particular emphasis on women.
To conduct the analysis, the organization used its Trade Impact Review (TIR), a framework developed to determine the positive and negative consequences a trade agreement will have before it is signed.
Women and Trade
Over the last several years, the Women's Edge Coalition has become increasingly concerned with how U.S. trade policies affect women and the poor in developing countries. Currently trade is considered to be gender-neutral, when in fact, trade agreements produce changes that affect men and women differently.
"Women are being abandoned, left behind by trade agreements," said Ritu Sharma, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Women's Edge Coalition. "They are the majority of the poor in this world, and if trade is supposed to help the poor, it has got to help women."
NAFTA's Impacts on Women Uncovered
-- Poverty increased by 50 percent for women-headed households since the implementation of NAFTA. In contrast, poverty for men decreased by 5.4 percent.
-- Women, more than men, benefited from non-traditional agricultural jobs, gaining 83 percent of the new jobs created in the sector. But, for the same job in the non-traditional agriculture sector, women earn 25 to 30 percent less than men. This explains why women gained more jobs in this sector -- they are cheaper labor.
-- 300,000 women farmers lost jobs, and these farmers are the poorest of the poor and have the worst land to farm.
-- Of women farmers in Mexico, only three percent have more then 10 hectares of land, much less than men. Women are the poorest farmers in Mexico.
-- Wages for women and men both dropped after NAFTA. However, women's wages were lower than men's to begin with. Therefore, the drop in women's wages caused many to go into much deeper poverty than men.
-- Due to NAFTA, Mexico changed its land ownership laws to favor individual property rights. This hurt women who previously had communal rights to farm land because when land becomes titled, it almost automatically goes to men.
NAFTA's Impacts on the Rural Poor
NAFTA was created with the explicit goal of reducing poverty in Mexico by creating a large, middle income population in the country. However, the findings clearly demonstrate that goal has not been accomplished - many of Mexico's poor have become poorer. Now NAFTA is the blueprint for the Free Trade Area of the Americas Agreement (FTAA), a trade agreement that will cover the entire western hemisphere.
-- NAFTA created 5.3 million jobs both in the formal and informal sectors. The TIR uncovered that approximately 36 percent of these jobs were created in the informal sector where workers typically receive no benefits, are not entitled to vacation pay or overtime, and routinely have no contract protections.
-- 1.3 million jobs in agriculture were lost in Mexico due to NAFTA (1 million men and 300,000 women). Many that lost their jobs in this sector could not transfer to the newly created jobs due to lack of education.
-- Monthly income for self-employed farmers fell from 1,959 pesos a month in 1991 to 228 pesos a month in 2003.
-- The quality of living for poor farmers dropped dramatically; there was a 50 percent decline in the basic goods (such as food, clothing, health, education and housing) that Mexicans could afford to buy between 1990 and 2000, further exacerbating poverty issues for women.
FTAA Forecasting: More Job Losses for the Poor
If the current trend continues with the FTAA, at BEST, over a five year time period, 350,000 more jobs will be lost in Mexico's agricultural sector and that number could go up to 750,000.
About the Trade Impact Review
If the U.S. and other governments want trade policies to benefit the poor here and abroad, it is critical to conduct a TIR, which does not require extensive time or resources.
By using the TIR, policy makers can either modify a trade agreement so that the poor do not lose their jobs or they can develop U.S. and Mexican assistance programs to help transition the displaced workers to jobs that pay decent, livable wages.
About the Women's Edge Coalition
The Women's Edge Coalition, created in 1998, advocates with the U.S. government for international economic and human rights policies that support women worldwide in ending poverty in their lives, communities and nations. The organization pushes for pioneering development aid programs and offers positive alternatives to current trade policies that benefit and empower the poorest women. The Women's Edge Coalition has researched and developed several initiatives including the GAINS for Women and Girls Act and the Trade Impact Review. For more information visit http://www.womensedge.org.
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