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USDA confident in challenge to Mexico’s GM corn ban

USDA is keeping a close eye on Mexico’s ban on genetically modified corn imports.

Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs Alexis Taylor says she expects a panel decision in favor of U.S. corn producers later this year.

“We’re confident in the arguments we’re making about sound science, about how the agreement is structured, about science-based decision making,” she says. “At the same time we continue to be able to export yellow corn into Mexico and have actually seen a lot of growth,” she says.

She tells Brownfield the challenge to the GM corn ban, under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is a top priority as Mexico’s President-Elect Claudia Sheinbaum takes office this fall.

“We obviously look forward to engagement with her and the new Mexican incoming government,” she says.        

Taylor spoke Wednesday at the Kansas Governor’s Summit on Agricultural Growth, in Manhattan.

PHOTO: Kelsey Olson, Deputy Secretary at the Kansas Department of Agriculture (left) and Alexis Taylor, USDA Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs (right), at KDA’s Ag Growth Summit in Manhattan Wednesday. (Courtesy Heather Lansdowne, KDA)