The issues of glyphosate and transgenic corn should be addressed at the meeting of the Undersecretaries of Commerce of Mexico, the United States and Canada this Thursday, urged Kevin Brady, Republican leader of the Ways and Means Committee of the United States House of Representatives.

On December 31, 2020, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador issued a Decree declaring his government’s intention to phase out the use of glyphosate and genetically modified corn for human consumption, a policy that lacks scientific support and would threaten the success of US farmers in making Mexico the leading export market for US corn and related products.

Glyphosate

On October 20, 2021, after a meeting with his Mexican counterpart, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, announced that Mexico would not take steps to block imports of genetically modified organisms from the United States.

«We urge you to continue pressuring Mexico to confirm this commitment,» Brady said in a letter to Katherine Tai, head of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

18 months have passed since the entry into force of the Agreement between Mexico, the United States and Canada (USMCA), which modernized the trilateral commercial relationship.

From Brady’s point of view, the USMCA not only represents the culmination point for bipartisan collaboration on trade, but also creates a clear roadmap for the successful conclusion of new trade agreements with other key trading partners.

«As he has well emphasized, the success of the USMCA will be measured by the extent to which it is fully implemented and enforced,» Brady told Tai.

The legislator applauded the successes they have already achieved in the recenMECt dairy market access case against Canada and in enforcing the commitments of the Labor Chapter of the USMCA in Mexico under the Rapid Response Mechanism.

«However, I remain concerned about the numerous measures that the governments of Canada and Mexico have adopted or proposed that appear to violate the letter of the USMCA and threaten to fundamentally alter the benefit of the deal we negotiated,» he concluded.