The US-Mexico Trade War Over GM Corn Heats Up

Truthdig (in Spanish on Contralinea)

If the U.S. government was hoping a new president would weaken Mexico's resolve to ban the cultivation and consumption of genetically modified corn, those hopes have been dashed.

 “We will not allow the cultivation of genetically modified corn,” Claudia Scheinbaum stated in her inauguration speech on Oct. 1.

 Mexico’s stand against GM corn — first expressed in a February 2023 presidential decree by outgoing president Andrés Manual López Obrador — has become the source of a historic trade conflict between the U.S. and its largest trading partner. In August 2023, Washington’s trade representative responded with a formal complaint under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that argued Mexico’s restrictions — aimed at keeping GM corn out of tortillas and other corn products for human consumption — were not based on science. After a year of formal back-and-forth filings before a trade tribunal, the three arbitrators are expected to issue a ruling in November.

 Mexico’s resolve — reaffirmed by Scheinbaum’s newly seated secretary of agriculture in his own inaugural remarks — presents a bold challenge not only to the U.S. government, but to a global trade regime widely charged with favoring multinational firms over countries’ legal commitments to protect public health and the environment.  Mexico has argued persuasively that its precautionary GM corn policies are backed by a wealth of scientific evidence showing that high levels of consumption pose health risks from both GM corn and the herbicide residues that come with it. Since the measures scarcely affect the $5 billion in U.S. corn exports to Mexico used overwhelmingly as animal feed, Mexico’s challenge is simple and direct: Can the USMCA be used to undermine domestic policies for public health and the environment, even when they barely affect trade?

read the full article on Truthdig (in Spanish on Contralinea)