The U.S. government said Thursday that it is officially asking for a conflict resolution group in its ongoing fight with Mexico over its limits on genetically modified corn. Mexico’s Economy Department said it had gotten the message and would stand up for its stance. In a statement, it said that “the measures under debate had no effect on trade,” which means that they do not break the USMCA, or United States-Mexico-Canada free trade deal.
The U.S. Trade Representatives Office, or USTR, didn’t agree with Mexico’s decision to stop people from eating GM corn, and it plans to do the same thing to GM corn used as animal fodder. In a statement, the USTR said, “Mexico’s actions are not based on science, and they hurt the market access that Mexico agreed to give under the USMCA.” The experts will now be chosen, and they will have about six months to look into the case and report their results. If Mexico is found to have broken the rules of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade deal, trade penalties could be put in place. In June, the U.S. government said that talks with the Mexican government had not led to a solution.
Mexico wants to ban GMO corn for people to eat and maybe even for animals to eat in the future. Both of its northern partners say that this would hurt trade and go against the USMCA, which says that any health or safety standards must be based on scientific proof. Mexico buys the most yellow corn from the U.S., and most of it is genetically modified. Because Mexico doesn’t grow enough feed corn, almost all of it is fed to cattle, pigs, and chickens. Almost all of the white corn grown in Mexico for human consumption is grown there, but GM corn could be in corn meal chips or other prepared foods.
Mexico says that GMO corn may be bad for people’s health, even when used as feed, but they haven’t shown proof. Before, Mexico seemed to want to avoid a big fight with the U.S. over corn, but not so much that it would stop talking about a ban. In February, Mexico’s Economy Department came out with new rules that moved back the date when GM feed corn could be brought in from other countries. In the new rules, it says that GM feed and ground corn will be “slowly replaced,” but it doesn’t say when that will happen. It also says that any possible health problems will be looked into by Mexican experts “along with health authorities from other countries.”
Read Also: Trans Girls’ Participation in School Sports at Risk Amid K-12 Resumption
Uncertainty Over GM Corn Ban Raises Meat Price Concerns in Mexico
Some U.S. farmers were afraid that a ban on GM feed corn could happen as soon as 2024 or 2025 when the rules were different. Even though the date was dropped, the part of the rules that said GM corn could be used instead in the future was not changed. This could cause meat prices to rise in Mexico, where inflation is already high. Farmers in the United States have been afraid that they might lose the biggest export market for U.S. corn. Mexico has bought about $3 billion worth of GM feed corn from the U.S. every year for many years.
Read Also: Federal Appeals Court Upholds Block on Idaho Transgender Athletes Law
Source: Independent, VOA News
