NAFTA has led to a loss of one million factory jobs in the U.S

In Mexico, farmers plan nationwide protests over what will be the final step in implementing the North American Free Trade Agreement on Jan. 1 and eliminating tariffs on American-grown beans and corn. The U.S. will drop tariffs on flip-flops, glassware and sugar, the most price-sensitive import.

``Back in 1993 when Nafta was negotiated, 15 years was a lifetime away,'' said Daniel Erikson, a senior associate at the non-partisan Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. ``But now this is really affecting the most sensitive products.''

The free-trade agreement among the U.S., Mexico and Canada created the world's biggest trade bloc, with exchange of goods and services between the U.S. and Mexico more than quadrupling to $332 billion a year, according to government data.

Right Wing Bill Clinton's gift of "free trade" to his corporate backers

Critics say the agreement has led to a loss of one million factory jobs in the U.S., while subsidized U.S. imports pushed millions of farmers in Mexico off their land and spurred illegal immigration.

``Mexican agriculture has been a net loser in trade with the United States, and employment in the sector has declined sharply,'' former Clinton administration official Sandra Polaski testified before the U.S. Senate last year.

Political Impact

Nafta also has had a political impact in both countries.

In Mexico, protesters plan to form a human wall at main U.S. border crossing-points to block grain imports. The National Confederation of Farmers, with 5 million members, said there might be an armed revolt similar to the Zapatista rebel uprising in January 1994 when Nafta took effect.

``For us, this is an issue of food sovereignty,'' Carlos Navarro Lopez, who heads the Rural Development Committee in Mexico's lower house of Congress, said in an interview. ``The main goal of the protests is to force the federal government to sit down with the farmer and lawmakers to see how we can seek a renegotiation.''

Mexico's two biggest opposition groups, the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, plan to reverse the opening by proposing the creation of a ministerial committee to control all food imports, said members of both parties.

In the U.S., Democrats including presidential candidate John Edwards and union officials blame Nafta for lost jobs and stagnant middle-class wages. They have pledged not to pursue similar types of agreements with other countries.

Safety Standards

``There's no doubt that Nafta needs to be amended,'' Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said in a debate Dec. 13.

No. It needs to be repealed.