Of all the issues facing U.S. trade, the U.S. Grains Council says Mexico’s ban on biotech corn takes the lead. Despite setbacks, the vice president of the group says there is still plenty of work to do.
“USTR has been involved and asked for formal consultations, and it’s in the 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,” Cary Sifferath, USGC Vice President said.
Sifferath echoes what other ag groups have said; the discussions over biotech corn need to focus on the science. He warns getting this wrong could have an impact on other products in the market.
“Even Canada, you know, the two of the three parties that within USMCA signed on and joined the official consultations with the U.S. again, Canada also does not want to have Mexico set precedent for trying to ban the importation of GM grains and oil seeds that have GMO events in them going forward as well,” Sifferath said.
