WASHINGTON—The United States increased its efforts on Friday to persuade Mexico to relax its limits on genetically modified corn, after more than a year of high-level talks between the two countries failed to resolve the dispute.
The United States requested dispute-resolution discussions with Mexico under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the most forceful measure the United States government has taken so far to end the disagreement over Mexico’s efforts to ban genetically modified corn.
“The United States has repeatedly expressed concern that Mexico’s biotechnology policies are not based on science and threaten to disrupt US exports to Mexico to the detriment of agricultural producers,” said US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
US commerce and agriculture officials have been attempting to persuade Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s government to abandon its intentions to restrict imports of genetically modified corn.
The Mexican Economy Ministry stated late Friday that the country would defend its position in the dialogues while seeking a mutually agreeable conclusion. It rejected that Mexico’s gradual transition to non-genetically modified corn for industry and cattle would result in trade restrictions, as claimed by the USTR. Mexican officials have stated that they are attempting to protect the country’s heirloom maize types and have expressed health worries about a weedkiller commonly used with genetically modified corn.
According to the National Corn Growers Association, more than 90% of corn farmed in the United States is genetically engineered.
The USMCA trade pact requires the US and Mexico to begin discussions within 30 days.
commercial groups and senators representing US farmers have long urged the government to take this action, claiming that the prohibition threatens to hurt US maize growers and destabilize the commercial relationship between the two countries.
“Mexico’s actions, which are not based on sound science, have threatened the financial well-being of corn growers and our nation’s rural communities,” said Tom Haag, president of the Corn Growers Association.
López Obrador signed an order in December 2020 to phase out the use of genetically modified corn in Mexico by January 2024. Mexican officials have stated that their goal is to safeguard native corn varieties in Mexico and that their rules are consistent with the USMCA trade pact.
Mexico issued a modified decree in February that prohibited genetically modified corn from being used in dough and tortillas and stated that it will eventually prohibit genetically modified corn from being used in animal feed.
Mexican officials have stated that their country already produces more white corn than it eats, while corn imported from the United States is used for livestock feed and industrial purposes.
Officials in the United States have stated that genetically modified crops have been proven safe for human consumption.
Most maize in the United States has been engineered to be more resistant to insects, more productive, and, more recently, drought tolerant. It is also intended for use with glyphosate, the world’s most frequently used herbicide and the active ingredient in Bayer AG’s Roundup weedkiller.
According to the US Agriculture Department, Mexico is the US’s largest agricultural trading partner in terms of combined exports and imports, with 14.5% of US agricultural exports flowing to Mexico in 2022.
