Vilsack on Mexican Corn Ban
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack keeps the pressure on Mexican officials to back off plans to ban imports of GMO corn.
During a meeting Friday with Mexican officials, Vilsack had a warning about how they’d modified President Lopez Obrador’s plans to ban imports of genetically modified corn starting in 2024 …
VILSACK … “If the proposal doesn’t meet what we think is consistent with the science and doesn’t meet what we think is consistent with the USMCA, we would absolutely continue to work with the U.S. Trade Representative’s Office to begin the process of triggering whatever needs to be triggered under the USMCA. And that hasn’t changed, and it’s not going to change.”
The same message Vilsack delivered earlier to Mexico’s president …
VILSACK … “By going down and speaking to the president and making sure he understood that, I think he respected that and we hope two things—one, we hope that we continue to see corn that’s produced in the United States (go) to Mexico, and we hope to see consistency and adherence to the terms and conditions of the USMCA or a process in which we trigger the dispute resolution aspect of the USMCA.”
Vilsack says the Mexican delegation presented some potential amendments to the decree in an effort to address our concerns and he agreed to review their proposal.
