The North America Free Trade Agreement has been in force for 10 years. To say that it has not been the resounding success it was purported to be would be an understatement.

In fact, for many in the agriculture industry in Miami-Dade County, NAFTA has been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster, and it comes to symbolize devastation within the agriculture industry in general. Now the Bush administration has negotiated a free trade pact with Central America, and is pursuing one with the entire Latin American region, that will further devastate the agriculture sector in Florida.

In 2002, the United States had an $85 billion net export deficit. That figure is deplorable and certainly not the outcome that the promise of NAFTA was to yield. We have a serious trade-deficit problem -- now at a record high -- that the Bush administration can no longer choose to ignore. The trade deficit affects the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of American farmers, small businesses and workers. On top of that, the U.S. agricultural-trade surplus is half of what it was 10 years ago. These numbers are nothing short of devastating -- and very frightening.

According to a recent study, Florida had a net loss of 35,511 jobs as a direct consequence of NAFTA, a large percentage of which came from the agriculture industry. Florida lost more than 1,000 small and medium-sized farms since NAFTA was implemented.

Also, Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, found that NAFTA has resulted in the income of independent Florida farmers declining, consumer prices rising, and the only winners are some giant agri-businesses that have reaped huge profits. That's smart trade policy?

Miami-Dade's tomato and pepper farmers were hardest hit. NAFTA drove more than two-thirds of Florida's tomato farmers out of business, and the same predicament is now facing our pepper growers.

As the Dade County Farm Bureau has said repeatedly, Florida's farmers must contend with higher costs for land and labor than their Mexican counterparts. There is no way our farmers can compete with selling below production costs. Ultimately they are forced to shut down operations, sending yet again more desperately needed American jobs over the border. Sadder still, some of these farms had been in families for generations and saw the American dream sent abroad.

The administration's solution? Expand. Sign more deals that will eliminate jobs in America.

Now let's turn to CAFTA.

This deal will basically create a duty-free trading zone with six countries whose economic activity is basically one-sixth of Florida's. CAFTA will take away more jobs from Floridians who desperately need them and decimate industries for which the state has become famous. For the sugar industry in Florida, CAFTA would put some 23,000 direct and indirect jobs at risk and impact our state's economy to the tune of $2 billion. Can we really afford to lose more jobs in Florida?

It's about time that our elected leaders actually use our economy's muscle to our benefit. The Bush administration and Congress cannot continue to disadvantage hardworking Americans by signing trade treaties that put Americans out of work and weaken our economy.

Ill-advised trade deals that seem to do nothing more than open up our markets will cause irreparable harm to Florida's already hard-hit agriculture industry and our barely recovering economy. Florida's farmers cannot bear the cost of another NAFTA.