Agriculture must not be punished for the woes other sectors may have experienced under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), leaders of farm groups from the U.S., Canada and Mexico said last week.

"Agriculture is a shining example of how this agreement can be a success," Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) President Ron Bonnett said in a joint press conference with American Farm Bureau (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall and Mexico’s Consejo Nacional Agropecuario (CNA) President Bosco de la Vega. "The three of us got together and decided we need to make a statement that this agreement is working. Don’t do something that is going to undermine that, because that is going to undermine farmers and ranchers in all three countries."

The three organizations sent a joint letter to Canadian, United States and Mexican government officials...