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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Monday, April 29, 2024
It’s all political. That’s the message from the U.S. to the three-member U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement panel that will be ruling on the U.S. complaint against Mexico’s attempt to block imports of genetically engineered corn.
The Mexican government continues to scoff at U.S. concerns over President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's restriction on genetically modified white corn, but the threat of the constraint is real, and damages are already accruing, according to American farmers and farm groups.
The Biden administration is moving quietly to sharpen its strategy and build up its arguments as it takes internal steps towards a potential trade dispute with Mexico over its ban on genetically modified white corn, according to sources with knowledge of the developments.
U.S. and Mexican officials met behind closed doors last week to discuss Mexico’s ban on tortilla makers using genetically modified white corn, even as Mexico tries to publicly justify its action with claims that the grain is a threat to the country.
The Biden administration is demanding that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador scientifically justify his decree that would ban genetically modified corn and the popular herbicide, glyphosate.
There aren’t any compromises that the Biden administration is willing to make when it comes to Mexico’s effort to curtail its imports of genetically modified corn from the U.S., says Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday that the U.S. is prepared to call for a dispute resolution panel under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement unless Mexico backs off its plan to bar at least some U.S. exports of biotech corn.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador may have thought he was offering a reasonable compromise when he told U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that Mexico would remain open to importing genetically modified feed corn, but American farmers don’t see it that way.
