Over the last 25 years, NAFTA has delivered unprecedented benefits to farmers and rural America. In 1993, American farmers exported $8.9 billion to Canada and Mexico. Last year we exported more than $43 billion. Those exports have been vitally important to sustaining farms, jobs, and rural communities, particularly in recent years when farm incomes have declined.

But just as farmers and ranchers have been among the biggest beneficiaries of NAFTA, they’d also be the ones to feel the most pain if America withdraws from the pact. That’s because NAFTA withdrawal would mean that Mexico and Canada would find other countries to sell them wheat, soy, barley, beef, pork and other ag commodities; it would seriously harm commodity and stock markets; and as you’ll see in this report, NAFTA withdrawal would result in a massive tax on the products American farmers grow and produce.

This tax on American farmers, would come in the form of tariffs, all of which were eliminated more than two decades ago when NAFTA began. In the event of NAFTA withdrawal, these taxes would snap back into place, which would be particularly damaging for US agriculture products headed south to Mexico. Reinstating these taxes would be devastating to the American heartland, particularly to the states highlighted in this report who are the most dependent on Mexico as an ag export market.

The top ten:

#1 - MISSOURI: 51% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#2 - NEW MEXICO: 45% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#3 - SOUTH DAKOTA: 39% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#4 - TEXAS: 37% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#5 - NEBRASKA: 36% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#6 - IOWA: 35% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#7 - KANSAS: 28% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#8 - ARKANSAS: 27% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#9 - NORTH DAKOTA: 25% of all agricultural exports to Mexico
#10 - MINNESOTA: 24% of all agricultural exports to Mexico

To read the full report, click here

As reported by Farmers for Free Trade