The request for consultations made by the United States (EU) against Mexico under the Dispute Resolution chapter of the T-MEC and what has been said by US officials shows that it could be decided to go to a panel on the issue of the ban on transgenic corn for human consumption, said Alberto Campos Vargas, partner of the Foreign Trade and Customs practice group of Sánchez Devanny.
Furthermore, there is a high possibility that Canada join these new consultations that could lead to a controversy panel, in which experts will analyze and determine which country is right.
The jurist said that the United States stated that Mexico has not presented the evidence to prove that there is a risk to human health derived from the consumption of yellow or transgenic corn for food products.
For the US government, the amount of corn exports to Mexico amounts to 5 thousand 570 million dollars.
If Mexico loses a possible panel under the T-MEC, “we will be subject to trade sanctions and what will happen, take away from Mexican products the possibility of importing with preferential treatment, and interestingly, the determination of which products will be subject to this sanction will not It will depend on the nature of the products, but rather on the damage caused to the US corn industry.”
In this sense, he told EL UNIVERSAL that USA You can decide to impose tariffs on automobiles, electronic products, textiles, because it is not a question of sanctioning a product or only a food or grain. The sanction will be imposed “based on quantities and can be any product.”
According to the Agricultural Markets Advisory Group (GCMA), Corn production allows Mexico to contribute 64% of the total annual national consumption and by 2023 it is estimated that a total of 46 million metric tons will be required.
“The estimated production for the 2023 agricultural year is 28.1 million metric tons, 4.6% above the 27 million metric tons of 2022. Of this volume, it is estimated that 24.6 million metric tons will be of corn white and the rest of yellow corn,” he said.
Last year, 17,336,000 metric tons of corn were imported from the United States, of which 14,993,000 were yellow corn, 579,000 white, and 112,000 broken grains, which had a value of 5,570. million dollars, reported GCMA.
Start of disputes
In December 2020, the Government of Mexico published a ban on the use, production, distribution and marketing of transgenic corn, however, after various talks with the US government, On February 13, 2023, he modified the decree and only prohibited the use of transgenic corn for human consumption.
However, this decree did not convince the United States, for which reason it began, last March, a consultation under Chapter 9 of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures of the T-MEC, while on June 2 it sent another request for consultations via Chapter 31 Dispute Resolution.
● READ MORE: Mexico and the US discuss transgenic corn
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