Toxins created by the maquiladora factories are leaking into the land and water at alarming rates. According to Mexican government
figures, the cost of NAFTA-related environmental damage in 1999 alone was an estimated $47 billion. It is likely that annual pollution
damages from 1989 to 1999 exceeded $36 billion per year. This damage dwarfs the value of economic growth from trade, which was only
$14 billion per year.