Find a real life example of a small state in the global South that bargained with a great power about an issue where your interests diverged. Briefly describe the outcome. Imagine you are the leader of this poor state. What leverage and strategies could you bring into play to improve the outcome for your state?
On January 1, 2008 "the last tariffs on corn, beans, sugar and milk were lifted under the North American Free Trade Agreement, completing a 14-year transition to an open market between Mexico, the United States and Canada"(McKinley 2008). However, many Mexican farmers of these products agree with the sentiments of one small Mexican farmer: "We cannot compete against this monster, the United States...It's not worth the trouble to plant. We don't have the subsidies. We don't have the machinery," and say that the high prices of fuel and fertilizer make it impossible to make a living (McKinley 2008). Unlike U.S. farmers, Mexican farmers receive no subsidies from their national government. In the hopes of gaining economic opportunities, the Mexican government had entered NAFTA with the U.S....
However, Mexico's concessions regarding agricultural provisions of the bill have had a disproportionately negative impact upon Mexican farmers.
The Mexican government has suggested that its farmers form large competitive agricultural cooperatives to compete with U.S. farms, but even large Mexican farmers say that they will struggle, given that they receive no government subsidies, unlike U.S. agricultural industrial farms. To perhaps win more concessions from the U.S. In a renegotiation of NAFTA provisions, Mexico could use a critical 'bargaining chip' of exercising more control over its borders with the United States to reduce in influx of illegal workers.
Works Cited
Moore, Samuel & Q. Mizher. "U.S. Says it Accidentally Killed 9 Iraqi
Civilians." 4 Feb 2008. The New York Times. 4 Feb 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/world/middleeast/04iraq.html?ref=world
McKinley, James. "Mexican Farmers Protest End of Corn-Import Taxes." The New York Times. 1 Feb 2008. 4 Feb 2008. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/01/world/americas/01mexico.html?ref=americas
