05/11/2005
Beaver County Times
When the North American Free Trade Agreement was being debated in the United States, some supporters played down demands by American labor groups and others that it include provisions relating to health, safety, labor, the environment and other areas.
NAFTA backers said it would infringe on Mexico’s sovereignty to impose restrictions in these areas.
We thought of the decade-old debate following a report by the federal Food and Drug Administration that workers at one of four Mexican green onion farms inspected as a result of the 2003 hepatitis A outbreak at the Chi-Chi’s restaurant at the Beaver Valley Mall lived in windowless metal shacks with no showers.

The Associated Press reported the FDA also found that shallow trenches ran from an area littered with soiled diapers and other human waste, downhill to onion fields and a packaging house.
Although the FDA didn’t link the farm to the hepatitis A outbreak that sickened at least 650 people and killed four more, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did conclude that green onions caused the outbreak.
Keep the FDA investigation in mind whenever free trade agreements are being negotiated, and remember that there is nothing wrong with the United States requiring that health, safety and labor issues be addressed. Chalk it up as a lesson learned.