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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
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.
U.S. and Mexican government officials have been meeting over Mexico’s plan to ban on genetically modified corn, but the National Corn Growers Association says time is running out and the Biden administration needs to take action soon.
Mexico has not publicly ruled on genetically modified plant traits in the four years since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador took power, but the country’s health regulator Cofepris has been quietly approving and rejecting traits with an apparent bias against glyphosate-resistant corn seeds, according to U.S. government and industry sources.
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative has rejected a petition from lawmakers to conduct a Section 301 investigation into claims that U.S. fruits and vegetables are suffering from unfair imports flowing in from Mexico, but the Biden administration says it still wants to help U.S. farmers.
Kenya has ended its decade-long ban on growing and importing genetically modified crops, according to a statement released by the office of the country’s new president, William Ruto.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is blocking the speedy movement of Doug McKalip’s nomination to be the chief agricultural negotiator for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, a position U.S. farm groups and farm states have been eager to see filled as quickly as possible.
Bipartisan agreement on the need for the U.S. and Taiwan to strengthen ties through a trade pact was on display Wednesday at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing, although Republican lawmakers were mostly critical of the Biden administration’s decision not to negotiate a traditional free trade agreement that requires approval from Congress.
India, an international ag trading powerhouse that often comes into friction with the U.S. over tariff and nontariff barriers, is the only Indo-Pacific Economic Framework country out of 14 not participating in the pact’s trade pillar after a major summit held in Los Angeles this week, according to government officials.
