The Mexican government has officially repealed its proposed ban on imports of genetically modified (GM) corn from the USA after a trade dispute panel ruled the restrictions violated the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) agreement, World Grain reported.
In a bid to protect native corn varieties and eliminate the use of the herbicide glyphosate, former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had issued a decree on 1 January 2021 banning the use of GM corn by 2024, although this was later extended to 2025, the 7 February report said.
On 17 August 2023, the USA established a dispute settlement panel under Chapter 31 of the USMCA, challenging some measures in the corn decree, World Grain wrote.
In its final report on 20 December, the three-member panel ruled in favour of all seven US legal claims, saying the restrictions were not based on science and violated the USMC’s chapters on sanitary and phytosanitary measures and on market access.
Under USMCA rules, Mexico and the USA were expected to agree on a resolution of the dispute within 45 days from the date of that report.
In its latest announcement on 5 February, the Mexican government repealed two measures, the ban on GM corn in dough and tortillas for human consumption and an instruction to Mexican agencies to phase out its use in other food uses and animal feed, World Grain wrote.
“The United States will continue to monitor closely Mexico’s compliance with its USMCA commitments to ensure that Mexico’s agricultural biotechnology measures are based on science and provide US corn growers the market access that Mexico agreed to provide in the USMCA,” a US trade representative was quoted as saying.
Welcoming the outcome, the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) said the ban would have significantly harmed farmers and rural communities.
“Mexico must comply with the report and eliminate all measures that ban or restrict the trade of genetically modified corn,” NCGA president and Illinois farmer Kenneth Hartman Jr was quoted as saying.
The move was also welcomed by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA).
In its statement on 10 February, the USDA said the move would protect approximately US$5.6bn of US corn exports to Mexico.
Mexico imports about 17M tonnes of corn from the USA, mainly yellow corn for use in feed production, while white corn totals around 5% of that volume. The majority of US corn is GM.
Mexico is forecast to import 25M tonnes of corn in the 2024/25 marketing year, with 99% from the USA, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service.
