Mexico’s attempt to justify its ban on imports of genetically engineered U.S. corn are not accompanied by scientific backing, the United States says in a sharply worded rebuttal filed in its ongoing trade dispute. “Mexico has put forward no coherent theory or rationale for why GE corn would be unsafe in the face of science-based safety assessments performed by competent authorities using an internationally accepted approach,” the U.S. says in its rebuttal, posted online April 30 by the Secretariat of the U,S,-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a decree in February 2023 to immediately ban imports of GE white corn and set the nation on a path to eventually block all GE corn. But that decision violates the country’s trade obligations under USMCA, the U.S. said in its document. “Mexico has endeavored to cobble together ‘scientific’ support that only reinforces that Mexico’s Tortilla Corn Ban and Substitution Instruction are not, and never have been, based on science- or risk-based principles and contradict the international standards, guidelines, and recommendations relevant to human, animal, and plant life and health,” the U.S. says. The Substitution Instruction refers to Lopez Obrador’s “instruction to gradually substitute GE corn used for animal feed and industrial use for human consumption,” the document says. The dispute panel is scheduled to complete its final report June 20, with a public report available July 5.
For more news, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com
