José Díaz Briseño/Agencia Reforma
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 | 09:24
Washington DC.- The main association of corn producers in the United States rejected the new decree of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that maintains the ban on the import of transgenic corn for human consumption and requested to initiate a trade dispute against Mexico.
After the publication of a new decree on Monday in the Official Gazette of the Federation, the National Corn Producers Association (NCGA) urged the Administration of President Joe Biden to immediately activate a dispute under the Trade Agreement between Mexico, the US and Canada (T-MEC).
“As Mexico implements a new decree, the NCGA expands its call on the Biden Administration to initiate dispute resolution under the T-MEC,” said a statement from the US corn growers.
In the new version of the decree published on Monday, López Obrador relaxed his position by allowing the importation of transgenic corn for fodder and industrial use, while ways to replace them are explored, but he maintained the ban on the importation of transgenic corn for use in tortillas. and dough.
However, the terms of the new decree were not satisfactory for US producers who, since the end of 2022, have requested the Biden Administration to initiate a trade dispute under Chapter 30 of the T-MEC and whose first phase is a call for consultations with the Mexican Government. .
“The integrity of the T-MEC, which was signed by the President of Mexico himself, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, is at stake,” Tom Haag, the president of the US corn growers, said on Tuesday about the new decree yesterday.
In particular, US producers are concerned about the lack of certainty in López Obrador’s new decree, since its wording suggests that the ban on imports of transgenic corn for use in tortillas and dough will be effective immediately and not in 2024 as was originally posed.
So far, neither the Office of the Trade Representative nor the US Department of Agriculture have issued a position on the new Mexican decree, but a senior US official had said in early February that they would not accept bans on any of the types of GM corn.
During a hearing in the United States Senate Agriculture Committee on February 1, the US Assistant Secretary of Agriculture for Trade Affairs, Alexis Taylor, assured that the Biden Administration would not accept López Obrador’s restrictions on GM yellow corn for feed. , nor for transgenic white corn for tortillas and masa.
“In the talks I’ve had with my Mexican counterparts, we’ve talked broadly to include our exports of yellow corn and white corn,” Taylor said, when asked directly by Nebraska Republican Senator Debra Fischer who had asked if the US would accept the easing.
According to data for the year 2021, US producers reached a record corn exports to Mexico this year for more than 16.8 million tons and more than 90 percent of these exports involved transgenic yellow corn for fodder while the rest was corn. white.
