U.S. Farmers Get a Much-Need Win Against Mexican Corn Import Decrees

In February 2023, the Mexican government put out two decrees that dealt with corn imports from the U.S. American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall commented on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) panel ruling that Mexico’s ban on American-grown biotech corn is a violation of the trade agreement.

“Farm Bureau applauds the USMCA panel decision regarding Mexico’s actions to ban biotech corn for human consumption and animal feed. The panel affirmed what AFBF and America’s farmers have emphasized all along – biotech corn is safe and decisions must be based on science, not politics," Duvall said. "We thank the U.S. Trade Representative for defending the safety of biotech corn and pursuing Mexico’s action as a violation of USMCA. If left in place, Mexico’s restrictions would have impacted the corn supply chain, stifled innovation, hurt trade and opened the door for other countries to pursue similar restrictive measures."

Dave Salmonsen, senior director of government affairs for the American Farm Bureau Federation, said both decrees were found to be in violation of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

"Both said that they did not want genetically modified corn from the U.S. One was about white corn that you use to make food products such as tortillas and such, and the other was about the yellow corn that goes into livestock feed," Salmonsen said. "So, the one about the white corn said no, we're not importing that anymore. We don't want it. And the other one said we want the Mexican government to find other sources. We want non-GMO yellow corn."

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative brought the case before a USMCA dispute panel that made it’s decision late last week.

"The dispute panel, which is made up of persons from all three countries, decided for the U.S. on all counts," Salmonsen said. "The main points of their panel decision were, one, that the Mexican measures were not based on science, and two, that what they were doing was undermining the market access that Mexico agreed to provide in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement."