Biden Officials Pressed on Mexico Corn Trade Issue at Farm Bill Hearing
“When it comes to agricultural trade, the concern I hear most from Iowans is access to Mexico's corn market,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). “With over 90% of the corn acreage in the United States being planted to biotech seeds and Mexico being the number one purchaser of U.S. corn, I'm concerned that this decree is not being met with the urgency that it deserves,” he said, referring to Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s decree that would phase out imports of GMO corn in 2024 — extended to 2025 under a compromise López Obrador’s administration recently offered, but which the U.S. rejected.
Read more: Mexico's GMO Corn Debate Tabled Until 2025, According to Mexico
Grassley recalled his role as former chair of the Senate Finance Committee, and support of USMCA. He noted the U.S. Trade Representative’s (USTR) move Tuesday to seek a second dispute panel aimed at seeing Canada meet dairy market access commitments it made under the pact and asked why the Biden administration has yet to do the same relative to Mexico’s policy on GM corn imports.
USDA Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor responded:
“We are engaging with urgency on this issue. We certainly appreciate the potential impact that the proposed decree could have on our corn growers here in the United States, but much broader than that, fundamentally our trading system globally, but also within the USMCA [which] is built upon science-based policies.”
Read more: USTR Again Raises Ag Biotech, GMO Corn Issue with Mexico
She stressed that the U.S. would hold Mexico to its commitments under USMCA and would work closely with the Senate Ag panel on the issue. Grassley asked Taylor whether she had a timeline on negotiations.
“We have been very clear that the USMCA gives us a process to go down if we cannot find resolution on this issue, and that we reserve all of those rights,” Taylor said.
