WASHINGTON, D.C. (RFD-TV) — According to a new report from Reuters, Mexico’s Agriculture Minister, Julio Berdegué, is scheduled to travel to Washington next week to discuss with U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins the reopening of the U.S.-Mexico border to cattle imports.
The U.S. has maintained a ban on these imports since May 2025 due to an outbreak of the New World Screwworm, a troubling cattle parasite that has spread in Mexico.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum expressed hope that the upcoming talks would lead to an agreement on reopening the border. The screwworm, a parasitic pest that burrows into the flesh of warm-blooded animals, has been advancing northward through Central America and deep into Mexico, straining relations with the United States and impacting the livestock sectors of both countries.
In response to the outbreak, Mexico is repurposing a former Mediterranean fruit fly control facility in Chiapas to produce sterile screwworm flies, a method proven to eradicate the parasite. The new facility, expected to be operational by July 2026, will double Mexico’s current weekly output of sterile flies, which are currently imported from Panama.
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is pushing to lower beef prices and has announced plans to rebuild the country’s cattle herd. Additionally, the White House revealed that President Trump is quadrupling the country’s low-tariff imports of Argentine beef to lower grocery store beef prices — an idea that is receiving a wild mix of responses from cattle ranchers.
