The partners are getting closer and closer to a full trade dispute, under the Treaty between Canada, the United States and Mexico (TMEC) on Mexican policies to limit the use of genetically modified corn, which it imports from its northern neighbor.
If consultations announced Friday fail to resolve disagreements within 75 days, Washington can request that a dispute settlement panel decide.
Asked if Canada would take steps similar to those of the United States, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said the country is “considering its next steps” and would be guided “by what is in the best interest of our farmers and the Canadian agricultural sector.”
The United States requested formal trade consultations in March over its objections to Mexico’s plans to limit imports of GM corn and other agricultural biotech products.
A spokeswoman for Mexico’s economy ministry, which is in charge of foreign trade policy, had no immediate comment. One of the Secretary of Agriculture said that there would be no comments on the matter.
Earlier this week, Mexico’s Secretary of Agriculture expressed confidence that the dispute with the United States would not go any further, nor would it escalate to a dispute settlement panel.
The dispute comes amid other disagreements between the United States and Mexico, especially over energy, in which Washington has argued that the nationalist policy of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador harms foreign companies.
Despite changes announced in February to a decree in which Mexico announced its biotech measures, the United States said the Latin American country’s policies are not based on science and appear inconsistent with its commitments under USMCA.
The new order removed the deadline to ban GM corn for animal feed and industrial use, the largest share of US corn imports by far, at about $5 billion, but kept the ban on grain used in bulk. or tortillas.
López Obrador has claimed that genetically modified seeds can contaminate Mexico’s thousand-year-old indigenous varieties and has questioned their impact on human health.
“They made some changes, such as removing the specific deadline to ban biotech products, but the decree calls for a phased replacement and final ban on biotech corn and this part of the measure itself has no scientific basis,” an office official said. Trade Representative (USTR).
The consultations will also address Mexico’s rejection of new biotech seeds for products such as soybeans, cotton and canola, US officials said.
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement: “We fundamentally disagree with the position that Mexico has taken on the issue of biotechnology, which has proven to be safe for decades.”
The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), which represents US farmers, praised the US move.
“Mexico’s actions, which are not based on sound scientific data, have threatened the financial well-being of our nation’s corn growers and rural communities,” NCGA Chairman Tom Haag said in a statement.