When discussing the impact that the North American Free Trade Agreement has had on U.S. agriculture, the general summary has been, “the agreement has been wonderful for U.S. agriculture, with a few exceptions.” This article explores the impact that NAFTA has had on the vegetable sector, which is one of the sectors often included after the comma.

Like many other commodities discussed in this series, in terms of trade of vegetables, NAFTA partners are each other’s top suppliers. In fact, Canada, Mexico and the United States have always been each other’s primary suppliers of vegetable imports, even prior to NAFTA.

In 1993, the year before the agreement went into effect, Mexico and Canada combined to supply 77 percent of U.S. vegetable imports. That percentage has held steady throughout the implementation of NAFTA and other trade agreements, ranging between 76 and 80 percent. In 2016, Canada and Mexico supplied 80 percent of U.S. vegetable imports.

Likewise, the U.S. (61 percent) and Mexico (25 percent) combined to supply 86 percent of Canada’s veggie imports in 2016. This is little changed from 1995, the first year for which data is available, when the U.S. (81 percent) and Mexico (8 percent) combined to supply 89 percent.

Read the full article on the American Farm Bureau Federation website.