Mexico Ban on GM Corn
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
There are no shortage of challenges facing the agricultural industry today. U.S. Grains Council vice president Cary Sifferath says the top ongoing trade challenge that they are dealing with is Mexico banning U.S. GMO white corn imports.
Sifferath… “USTR has been involved and asked for formal consultations. And it's in that process of having those consultations with Mexico. We'll see what the next step is from USTR going forward on that. But, you know, we've been working with the importers and end users on the ground in Mexico to work through this. The good thing is we still have the majority of our corn that goes to Mexico is yellow corn, and that's still flowing.”
Sifferath says that decisions like this need to stay on scientific merit.
Sifferath… “Standing up for the scientific basis of the safety of those products, for any use, whether it's human consumption or livestock feed going forward.”
And he says it has implications for other products in other markets.
Sifferath… “But even Canada, you know, two of the three parties that within USMCA signed on and joined the official consultations with us. Again, Canada also does not want to have Mexico set precedent for trying to ban importation of GM grains and oil seeds that have GMO events in them going forward as well.”
White corn accounts for four percent of Mexico's imports of U.S. corn, used primarily for making tortillas.
