美国国家公共电台 NPR Why Ditching NAFTA Could Hurt America's Farmers More Than Mexico's

 

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

The trade of food between the U.S. and Mexico has exploded over the past 15 years. Mexican fruit and vegetables come here while things like American corn and milk powder go the other way. President Trump¹ has talked about restricting imports from Mexico, but when it comes to food, policies like that could hurt the American companies more than the Mexican ones. NPR's Dan Charles explains why.

DAN CHARLES, BYLINE²: Garland Reiter is one of the people behind the rise in imported food from Mexico. His family's been growing strawberries in California for generations, selling them under the name Driscoll's. In the early 1990s, they started growing strawberries and raspberries in Mexico. It let them grow the fruit during seasons of the year when they couldn't do it back home.

GARLAND REITER: Our move really was for year-round product and quality.

CHARLES: Right around that same time, the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, went into effect. But Reiter says that's just a coincidence.

REITER: To tell you the truth, we pay minimal³ attention to that.

CHARLES: Lots of U.S. fruit and vegetable growers have set up production in Mexico. They've done it to expand their growing season or to cut costs. Farm workers in Mexico get paid very little compared to workers in the U.S. Garland Reiter says when he got to Mexico and met some Mexicans, he discovered another reason.

REITER: They're farmers, and they want to be farmers. That is their industry.

CHARLES: For all of those reasons, Mexican exports of fruits and vegetables to the U.S. have increased by nine times over the past 25 years to $12 billion a year. People in the industry say most of that increase comes from U.S. companies setting up production in Mexico. Now President Trump has talked about possibly taxing imports from Mexico or renegotiating NAFTA. But as far as Garland Reiter's concerned, that would just force Americans to pay a little more for Mexican fruit.

REITER: If you look at the magnitude⁴ of the investment in Mexico, there's no way that that'll come back into California. There's absolutely no way.

CHARLES: He'll keep growing in Mexico partly because it would be hard for Americans to get all their fresh berries anywhere else. But the other side of the trade equation⁵ - U.S. exports to Mexico - is different. A lot of the food products that the U.S. ships to Mexico are commodities⁶ that Mexico could buy from other places.

JOHN WILSON: Mexico's the No. 1 buyer of U.S. dairy products in the world.

CHARLES: This is John Wilson, senior vice⁷ president of Dairy Farmers of America, a cooperative⁸ with 14,000 dairy farmer members. The co-op has a plant that receives milk from big dairy farmers in the eastern part of New Mexico and dries it into powder.

WILSON: About 38 million pounds of powder moved from that plant into Mexico last year.

CHARLES: In total, American exports of milk powder to Mexico add up to half a billion dollars a year. That's up more than 10 times from 20 years ago. The U.S. also exports billions of dollars' worth of corn, soybeans, pork. And for these products, NAFTA is really important. It gets those products into Mexico duty free, which makes American commodities just slightly cheaper than the competition, like milk powder from New Zealand.

WILSON: Pennies do matter in the milk business. It's a very competitive⁹ business worldwide, and certainly the absence of a tariff¹⁰ can make or break a deal.

CHARLES: Wilson says, we don't know how much it would cost American dairy farmers if Mexico bought less of our milk powder. We don't even like to speculate¹¹ about that, he says, but it certainly would hurt. Dan Charles, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF THE METERS SONG, "CISSY STRUT")

1 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

4 magnitude   

n.大小；重大；星等

参考例句：

• I want to know the magnitude of this equipment.我想知道这个设备的大小。
• I hadn't realized the magnitude of the problem.我没有认识到这个问题的重要性。

5 equation   

n.方程式，等式，等同

参考例句：

• The solution can be expressed by a mathematical equation.答案可用一个数学方程式来表示。
• This equation is known as the ideal gas law.这个等式被叫做理想气体定律。

6 commodities   

商品( commodity的名词复数 )； 农产品； 有价值的物品； 有用的东西

参考例句：

• rice, flour and other basic commodities 稻米、面粉和其他基本商品
• The manufacturers in some countries dumped their surplus commodities abroad. 一些国家的制造商向国外倾销过剩产品。

7 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

8 cooperative   

adj.有合作意向的，合作的；n.合作社（企业）等

参考例句：

• The workmen are very cooperative,so the work goes on smoothly.工人们十分合作，所以工作进展顺利。
• We decided to set up a cooperative.我们决定开办一家合作社。

9 competitive   

adj.竞争的，比赛的，好竞争的，有竞争力的

参考例句：

• Some kinds of business are competitive.有些商业是要竞争的。
• These businessmen are both competitive and honourable.这些商人既有竞争性又很诚实。

10 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

11 speculate   

v.推测，推断，投机，做投机买卖

参考例句：

• It's dangerous to speculate.做投机买卖是很危险的。
• We don't know all the circumstances,so it would be pointless to speculate.我们不了解所有的情况，妄加推测是没有意义的。