Mexico sees end to lawsuit over transgenic corn with the US

The February decree maintained the ban on transgenic corn for “human food,” such as that used in flour to make “tortillas,” a staple in the Mexican diet, but clarified that it did not include grain for animal consumption and industrial use. for manufacturing human food.

“The issue of agriculture in bilateral terms, with this new decree, no longer has any topic for discussion,” Villalobos said in an interview with the Milenio newspaper published on Tuesday. “That potential threat (from the panel) existed before the second decree came out,” he added.

In March, after the disclosure of the new decree, the United States requested consultations with Mexico on genetically modified corn and other agricultural biotechnology products, assuring that it harms a million-dollar trade, to which the Mexican government has responded that its plan is consistent with the USMCA.

The technical consultations are the previous step towards a dispute settlement panel in the USMCA, which could ultimately lead to retaliatory tariffs.

Mexico imports some 17 million tons of corn from the United States a year, mostly yellow, for cattle feed, but also white.

The Latin American nation, a partner of Canada and the United States in the T-MEC regional trade agreement, mainly produces white corn and yellow to a lesser extent; Neither of the two varieties of the grain is transgenic.