A farmer harvests corn on a farm in New Mexico in August 2022.Andres Leighton (AP)
Canada on Friday joined the United States in its dispute with Mexico over a partial ban on GM corn. The Executive led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador has tried to veto the use of genetically modified corn since 2020, with the argument of protecting native corn and the health of the population against agrochemicals, a decision that has aroused tensions with its neighbor north of the border. "Canada shares the United States' concern that Mexico's measures are not scientifically supported and have the potential to unnecessarily disrupt trade in the North American market," the Canadian government said in a statement.
Mexico buys about 3,000 million dollars of this crop from the United States each year, so the decision of the López Obrador Administration in 2020 unleashed a series of controversies between both countries. The country has maintained the thesis of defending the health of its citizens, but the United States has asked in several explanations about the scientific foundations on which they based to make the decision. In the original decree, signed by López Obrador on December 31, 2020, it was not clear what type of corn the restrictions affected. Last February, and after constant US complaints, Mexico relaxed the prohibitions and specified that they would exclusively affect its use for human consumption. In the statement of the Ministry of Economy, he defended that the measure would not affect imports or exports.
Canada has given an endorsement to the decisions of the United States, which only a week ago requested consultations of "resolution" to the TMEC, the free trade agreement between the three countries. "The Government of Canada is committed to science-based decision-making and to food, feed and environmental safety, while supporting the ability of our farmers, workers and exporters to succeed in an innovative and sustainable agricultural sector," said the letter signed by Canada's Minister of Trade. Mary Ng, and that of Agriculture, Marie-Claude Bibeau.
The explanations of the Canadian Executive are in line with the arguments used last week by Washington, when the US Trade Representative, Katherine Tai, showed the country's concerns: "The United States has repeatedly expressed its concern that Mexico's biotechnology policies are not based on science and threaten to disrupt US exports to Mexico to the detriment of agricultural producers, which in turn can exacerbate food security challenges."
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