“The Three Amigos” – the Presidents of Mexico and the U.S. and the Canadian Prime Minister – just met a few days ago in Mexico City for the 10th North American Leaders’ Summit. Smiles, hugs, photographs, meetings and speeches, as well as the reaffirmation of the North American trade block (particularly and surprisingly from Mexico’s President López Obrador) were seen during the encounter.
Fentanyl, immigration and semiconductors supply chain issues were discussed. However, we were all expecting something about the critical situation of the GM corn imports in Mexico. And nothing was debated.
The Mexican National Ag Council (Consejo Nacional Agropecuario) did issue a Special Bulletin on Foreign Trade that mentioned a meeting carried out by several Mexican entities, including feed manufacturers. They “called for quick resolution of trade disputes and nuisances related to agriculture, in particular Mexico's proposal to ban some uses of biotech corn and other agricultural technologies.”
A truce was achieved late 2022. The GM corn import ban will not be applied until 2025, based on the fact that Mexico is far from achieving corn self-sufficiency, said Victor Villalobos, the Mexican Agriculture Secretary. But López Obrador also said during the January 6 morning press conference that “yellow corn imports will be allowed for feeds as long as research is carried out by scientists at Conacyt (the National Science and Technology Council) and equivalent counterparts in the U.S. to, once and for all, give Mexican and U.S. consumers certainty about damages of GM corn or discard it.” Tom Vilsack, U.S. Agriculture secretary, has spoken out about what this is all about. There is no compromise with Mexico on biotech corn. And the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement provisions are there, waiting to be enforced.
López Obrador talks about certainty and not speculations, but as far as I know, no one has died from eating yellow corn, meat from animals fed yellow corn or drinking a soda sweetened with yellow corn fructose.
Long story short, we will still be importing yellow corn form the U.S. for animal feeding, but uncertainty still lingers in the air. An opportunity was missed.
What do you think?
