US and Mexico Still Far Apart Over Ban on Corn Imports

Officials from the United States on Monday said that they are still far from contract with Mexico over that country’s plans to prohibit imports of genetically modified corn for human consumption.

Mexico told the media that it may eventually ban the use of GM corn in animal feed, but it expressed the hope that a cooperative agreement could be achieved to investigate the matter.

Mexico had made some improvements, according to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative, but "these changes are not adequate."

The suggested Mexican strategy, which is not supported by science, yet poses a danger to substantially upset the economics of Mexican and American farmers as well as to disrupt the bilateral agricultural commerce worth billions of dollars.

American farmers are worried about the possibility of losing the biggest export market for the maize sector from many years ago.

Mexico has been importing American GM feed corn for years, purchasing about $3 billion worth yearly. Mexico claims there are health concerns, but a trade embargo may violate the rules of the USMCA, which is the US-Mexico-Canada Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico expects that the agreement will help it avoid both a full-fledged trade dispute over the corn issue and a dispute over its energy sector.

What’s the Issue over GM Corn?

On December 31, 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador signed a presidential order mandating the phase-out of genetically modified (GM) corn for human consumption by January end of 2024. The directive greatly worried US grain exporters, and as the deadline draws near, the US is working harder to persuade President López Obrador to remove or relax the proposed embargo. At their meeting in Mexico, Mr. Vilsack informed President López Obrador of the "serious worries" that US farmers had as it mainly depends on yellow maize exports to Mexico.